“Yes, it is difficult to assign a definitive reason for the invasion,” said Shankar Sharma, the director of the on-site museum, which displays 350 artifacts among the more than 13,000 antiquities it houses, which have been recovered. during the Nalanda excavations, such as stucco carvings, bronze statuettes of the Buddha, and ivory and bone pieces.
“It wasn’t the first attack on Nalanda, though,” Sharma said, as we strolled through the ruins. “It was attacked by the Huns under Mihirkula in the 5th century, and again suffered severe damage following an invasion by King Gauda of Bengal, in the 8th century.”
As the Huns came to plunder, it is difficult to conclude whether the King of Bengal’s second attack was the result of growing antagonism between their Shaivite Hindu sect and the Buddhists of the time. On both occasions, buildings were restored and facilities expanded after the attacks with the help of the rulers’ imperial patronage.
“At the time Khilji invaded this sacred temple of knowledge, Buddhism was on a general state of decline in India,” Sharma said. “With its internal degeneration, associated with [the] decline of the Buddhist Pala dynasty which had patronized the university since the 8th century CE, the third invasion was the final blow.”
