Revival of Nalanda: Know how Bakhtiyar Khalji desecrated seat of learning

Sanatan Dharma gives power and purity to central space. There are hundreds of hymns in Vedas, in which prayers have been offered to attain power in order to conquer evil forces. It is surprising that a civilisation which gives so much centrality to power, over the years, reached a situation when invader after invaders came and captured its land, massacred and tried to trample its civilisation.

Reason for Rampant Invasions

There may be many explanations of it but one of the most important explanation is the failure to understand the nature of power. The power is a trigonal or three dimensional entity. The absence of one dimension of power drastically reduces the effectiveness of the absoluteness of the ‘power’. The first dimension of power is ‘money power’, the second is ‘knowledge power’ and the third one is ‘physical power’. In the cultural tradition of Bharat, the absoluteness of the power (super power) has been imagined in 16 handed Goddess Durga. Goddess Laxmi, who represents the money power, is four handed. Goddess Saraswati, who represents knowledge power, is also four handed. Goddess Durga, who represents physical power, is eight handed. But the same Goddess in her absolute form becomes 16 handed, in which eight hands represent physical power, four hands represent money power and the other four hands represent knowledge power. The money power without knowledge power becomes visionless and the knowledge power without money power becomes unsustainable. In the absence of physical power, both powers become helpless and vulnerable, which may be taken away by the evil force. This is the concept of absolute power, which has been transferred to us by our sages through the images (it is also like a language is a form of transmitting messages) of the Goddesses. But, the kings of India forgot or failed to understand this principle of the power, which resulted in centuries of tribulations. The history of Islamic invasion on Bharat is marked by desecration of religious places, plundering of its immense wealth, massacre of the men, rape of women and enslavement of both men and women. They all were despicable acts and because of such acts the people of Bharat had to pass through unaccountable tribulations for centuries. Nonetheless, the effect of all such things have been limited to the people of India. But, the savage act of burning millions of books, was a crime whose effect was not limited to the people of Bharat, it was a crime, which was committed against the whole of human civilisation and it impoverished the whole of the world.

Desecration of Nalanda University

As far as the military expedition of Bakhtiyar Khilji is concerned, it started from an area nearby Mirzapur and ended with his attack on the Kamrup district of Assam (1997-1206), which was a complete disaster for him. His modus operandi was to capture a place and slowly his expedition used to move towards other nearby places, generally, after a gap of several months. It appears that in-between, Bakhtiyar Khilji used to gather information about other possible targets. In Bihar, probably, he started his invasion from Nalanda University and later he attacked other places in Bihar, which includes, Vikramshila University.

As far as the attack on the Nalanda University is concerned, the main source of information about it is found in Tabkate Nasiri, which was written by Abu Umar Minhajuddin Usman Bin. It comprises 23 chapters, in which he wrote about all big Muslim figures, kings and the important incidents which had taken place till September 1260 AD. In that book, he wrote from Adam and Prophet Mohammad to Shamshi Malik (1260 AD). In the last chapter, he wrote about the hovering danger on Islam because of the attack of the Mongols. This is one of the most authentic narrations of the invasion, as two brothers of Fargana, namely, Nizamuddin and Samsamuddin had participated in the invasion of Nalanda. The author of Tabkate Nasiri, Minhajuddin had met one of the two brothers, Samsamuddin around 1243-1244 AD, who had narrated the author (Minhajuddin) about the invasion of Nalanda University in detail.

According to him, with the help of 200 cavalry, i Bakhtiyar Khilji had invaded the large fortified compound (Nalanda University). When invaders reached the gate of the fort, the battle broke out, in which both brothers demonstrated great bravery. While battle was going on at the main gate, Bakhtiyar managed to reach the back gate of the fortified compound and captured the fort. After capturing the fort, he got possession of immense wealth. All residents of that place were the Brahmins. They used to keep bald heads. They all were slaughtered. At the invaded place, he also got possession of a huge number of books, which he wanted to go through by the Hindus. But, by then, since all scholars had been slaughtered hence those books couldn’t be read by anybody. After seeing the huge number of books in the compound, they realised that this fortified town was a Madaris (in their terminology). In Hindwi, Madaris are called Vihar or Vidyalaya. After plundering huge wealth from that place (Nalanda University), he came back to the court of Sultan Kutubuddin Aibak, where he got much appreciation and rewards for his feat. After coming back from the court of Aibak, he started invading the rest parts of Bihar and a large part of Bengal. (The above first hand account has been Tabkate Nasiri was translated by Syed Atahar Abbas Rizvi of Aligarh Muslim University, which was published by the university in 1956.)

Why Was it Attacked?

As per the above account, it is not clear whether they had a clear-cut idea about the nature of the place before the invasion. But, the slaughter of inhabitants of the place and burning of books make it clear that their purpose was not limited to plundering of wealth. Although, in all likelihood, plundering of wealth might have top of their priority but slaughter of men and burning of books cannot be explained by it. After plundering of the wealth, there was no need of slaughtering the residents and burning the books. There is a section of historians and intellectuals who believe and want to make others believe that all the military expeditions and carnages were carried out only for wealth. Whether they are doing it because of intellectual machination or out of mental timidity, I don’t know, but, undoubtedly they are not discharging their intellect duty, that is clear from their such kinds of affirmations. Those who are interested to know the truth, must read ‘Sanaye Mohammadi’, written by Ziauddin Burni, during the reign of Iltutmish, who had succeeded Kutubuddin Aibak. In that book, he refers to a specific order of the Sultan, which was already in place by then, i.e. the order to slaughter the Brahmins. With regard to the rest of the non-Brahmin Hindu, according to Burni, it was decided that if mass killing is carried out, in that case, there is a chance of Hindu uprising, which has the chance of creating an unmanageable situation. Therefore, they decided to wait till the proportion of the Muslim population increases in the total population by forcing a section of them to convert. But, in the case of the Brahmin, they were so impatient to slaughter them that they couldn’t wait for the situation to become more favourable. The question is why? It was because the identity of the Brahmins were inseparably attached with the religion. Anathema to the other religious practices translated to the practitioners of the religion. That’s why they were the first in their priority list of the persons to be slaughtered.

So far as the burning of books is concerned, nothing better can be expected from a benighted and a savage person like him. But, slaughtering of Buddhists scholars, students and monks was done out of mistaken identity. As their attire and appearance were similar to the Brahmins, they could not differentiate between two, hence they were slaughtered. There are many so-called historians in Bharat, who love to opine that the Islamic invasion over India was a benign act. Similarly, there are many historians who intend to dissociate desecration of temples, plundering, massacre and enslavement of men and women by the Islamic invaders from their religious fervour. By expressing such an opinion, they only display their level of ignorance. As this is a fact that starting from prophet Mohammad to even today, the State and religion have been inseparable and intertwined with each other in Muslim-dominated countries. The level of influence of religion is still evident in the form of OIC. There is a sizable section of the general populace who talk about the contribution of the Muslim rulers over Bharat in favourable terms. In this regard, it is very difficult to identify any positive contribution towards Bharat and in any sphere of life for the general populace. If their contribution is enumerated, it may be found in the form of construction of mosques, which they built for offering their prayers, tombs for their dead persons and a few forts, which they built to secure themselves for security purposes. In the whole of the six centuries, not a single Muslim ruler built even a single university. They appear to be the forces of destruction, not of the creation, as there is hardly any positive contribution, which may be referred as their positive contribution in the lives of the people of India. On the contrary, during British rule, there are many positive things, for which they may be credited. The biggest among them is that they freed a large part of India from blockish Muslim rule. All other contributions comparing this one is, secondary. The biggest implication of the Muslim rule over Bharat is that all kinds of knowledge generation stopped. It impoverished the whole of humanity, as for one of the main generators of knowledge of the world, their physical survival became their prime concern. The destruction of the largest collection of knowledge was a heavy price that Bharat and the world, as a price of the military victory of the Muslims over India, paid.