World's oldest university to be raised from ashes

During the six centuries of its existence, there was nothing else quite like Nalanda University.

Probably the first large educational establishment, the college - in what is now eastern India - even counted the Buddha among its visitors and alumni.

At its height, it had 10,000 students, 2000 staff and strove for both understanding and academic excellence. Today, this much-celebrated centre of Buddhist learning is in ruins.

After a period during which the influence and importance of Buddhism in India declined, the university was sacked in 1193 by a Turkic general, incensed that its library may not have contained a copy of the Koran. The fire is said to have burned and smouldered for months.

Now this famed establishment of philosophy, mathematics, language and even public health is poised to be revived.

A beguiling and ambitious plan to establish an international university with the same overarching vision as Nalanda - and located alongside its physical ruins - has been spearheaded by a team of international experts and leaders, among them the Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen.

This week, legislation that will enable the building of the university to proceed is to be placed before the Indian Parliament.

"At its peak it offered an enormous number of subjects in the Buddhist tradition, in a similar way that Oxford [offered] in the Christian tradition - Sanskrit, medicine, public health and economics," Sen said in New Delhi.

"It was destroyed in a war. It was [at] just the same time that Oxford was being established. It has a fairly extraordinary history - Cambridge had not yet been born. Building will start as soon as the bill passes."

The plan to resurrect Nalanda - in the state of Bihar - and establish a facility prestigious enough to attract the best students from across Asia and beyond, was mooted in the 1990s. But the idea received greater attention in 2006 when the then Indian President, APJ Abdul Kalam established an international "mentoring panel". Members of the panel, chaired by Sen, include Singapore's Foreign Minister, George Yeo, historian Sugata Bose, Lord Desai and Chinese academic Wang Banwei.

A key challenge for the group is to raise sufficient funds for the university. It has been estimated that US$500 million ($686 million) will be required to build the new facility, with a further US$500 million needed to improve the surrounding infrastructure.

The group is looking for donations from governments, private individuals and religious groups. The governments of both Singapore and India have apparently given financial commitments.

Sen said the universities of Oxford, Harvard, Yale, Paris and Bologna had all been enthusiastic about possible collaboration.

Some believe a crucial impact of the establishment of a new international university in India would be the boost it gave to higher education across Asia.

- Independent