In his book Nalanda, poet-diplomat Abhay K reconstructs the legacy of ancient India's renowned center of learning that predated European universities like Oxford and Cambridge by centuries. The book chronicles how Nalanda pioneered interdisciplinary education, its historical significance, and the many raids it faced over decades. 

“I thought it’s my duty…because even in Nalanda no one knows about these things,” says Abhay when asked about what motivated him to write the book, in a conversation with Newslaundry’s Anand Vardhan. 

Despite all the renewed interest in the legacy of Nalanda, the fact remains that only 10 percent of it has been excavated. Do we need to re-energise our efforts? “How do we reenergise? So first of all we have to know what Nalanda was, so this is a book which tells the complete story of Nalanda.”

On what distinguished Nalanda from other monasteries of the time, Abhay points to the monastery’s “sacred geography”. He says that scientific inquiry starts with Buddhism itself as Buddha’s theory says that “nothing in this world can exist independently”. He also recounts the mathematical and scientific contributions from Nalanda, particularly Aryabhatta’s introduction of zero, the number system that followed, and its role in modern scientific discoveries. 

Abhay maintains that “there has not been a case of a single dispute in the whole history of Nalanda”. “Nalanda was too large to be destroyed in one raid or two raids or even 10 raids. It would take decades to destroy it.”

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