Xuanzang
(also known as Huansang) he was widely known as “Prince of Travelers”.
He is known as“Master
of “Logic”.
He traveled India between the years of 630 and 643 AD.
Huansang visited Nalanda
first in 637 and then again in 642, spent a total of around two years at the
monastery.
He
was warmly welcomed in Nalanda where he received the Indian name of
‘Mokshadevaand’.
He studied under the guidance of Shilabhadra aged 106 years
that time, the venerable head of the institution at that time.
Shilabhadra was the pupil of Ex Vice-chancellor
or head of the Nalanda Mahavihara and resident of Kanchipuram Dharmapala.
Dharmapala was the pupil of great Scholar Dignath, founder of
Buddhist Logic.
After
years of study in Nalanda and got knowledge from the great scholars of Nalanda,
Xuanzang authored the book “Vigyapti Matrata Siddhi”.
He also
translated the works of great scholar “Vasubandhu” –
‘Madhayastribhangsastra’ (661AD), and ‘Vinsika- Prakaran’ (661).
So going on their path he authored an original book in philosophy which became very much popular in China and was known as “Fahyan” (Dharma – Laxchan) or Signs of Dharma.
Xuanzang
believed that the aim of his arduous overland journey to India had been
achieved as in Shilabhadra, he had at last found an incomparable teacher to
instruct him in Yogacharya a school of thought that had then only
partially been transmitted to China.
Besides
Buddhist studies, Xuanzang also attended courses in grammar, logic, and
Sanskrit, and later he lectured at the Mahavihara.
Xuanzang
alias Huansang was a contemporary and an esteemed guest of King Harsha of
Kannauj.
Xuanzang
himself studied a number of subjects at Nalanda under Shilabhadra and others
Besides Theology and Philosophy.
In
the 7th century, Xuanzang recorded the number of teachers at Nalanda as being
around 1510.
Of these, approximately 1000 were able to explain 20 collections
of sutras and shastras, 500 were able to explain 30 collections, and only 10
teachers were able to explain 50 collections.
Xuanzang
was among the few who were able to explain 50 collections or more.
At this
time, only the abbot Shilabhadra had studied all the major collections of
sutras and shastras at Nalanda.
A
vast amount of what came to comprise Tibetan Buddhism both its Mahayana and
Vijarayana traditions, stems from the teachers and traditions at
Nalanda.
Huansang
and It sing came to the Mahavihara in the 7th century.
Many
of the names listed by Huansang in his travelogue as products of Nalanda are
the names of those who developed the philosophy of Mahayana.
Xuanzang
or Hiuen Tsang returned to China with 657 Buddhist texts (many of them
Mahayanist) and 150 relics carried by 20 horses in 520 cases, and translated 74
of the texts himself.
In
the 30 (thirty) years following his return, no fewer than 11(eleven) travelers
from China and Korea are known to have visited famed Nalanda.
Another monarch (possibly of the Maukhari (dynasty)
named Purnavarman who is described as "the last of the race of Ashok -
Raj", erected an 80 ft (24 m) high copper image of Buddha
to cover which he also constructed a pavilion of six stages.
Inspired by the journey of Fahyahan and
Xuanzang, the pilgrim, It- sing, arrived in India in 673AD.
He stayed there for fourteen years, ten of which
he spent at the Nalanda Mahavihara.
He returned to China in 695,
he had with him 400 Sanskrit texts which were subsequently translated.
Yijing alias I-tsing writes that revenues from 200
villages (as opposed to 100 in Xuanzang's time) had been assigned toward the
maintenance of Nalanda.
He described there being eight halls with as many
as 300 apartments.
According to him, daily life at Nalanda included a series of
rites that were followed by all.
Each morning, a bell was rung signaling the
bathing hour which led to hundreds or thousands of monks proceeding from their
viharas towards a number of great pools of water in and around the campus where
all of them took their bath.
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