Theuniversity of ancient Taxila (ISO:Takṣaśilā Viśvavidyālaya) was a center of theGurukula system ofSanskrit and Vedic learning inTaxila,Gandhara, in present-dayPunjab,Pakistan, near the bank of theIndus River. It was established as a centre of education in religious and secular topics.[1][2] It started as aVedic seat of learning;[2] while in the early centuries CE it became a prominent centre ofBuddhist scholarship as well.[3][2]
Following theAchaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley, around 540 BCE, Taxila became the capital of theirHindush satrapy (colony), the earliest known archaeological remains date to this period.[4][5] The city surrendered to Alexander in 326 BCE, was annexed by theMaurya Empire around 317 BCE, became part of theIndo-Greek Kingdom, around 200 BCE, annexed by theIndo-Scythians around 80 BCE, conquered, destroyed, and a new city founded by theKushan Empire around 30 CE, to flourish as a seat of Buddhist learning, to be conquered, destroyed, and the site abandoned by theHunas in the 5th century CE.[2][6][7] Taxila was at the crossroad of the main trade roads of Asia, and was probably populated by Indians, Persians, Greeks, Scythians and many ethnicities coming from the various parts of the Achaemenid Empire. The 4th - 3rd century BCE BuddhistJataka tales assert Taxila is where Aruni and his sonShvetaketu each had received their education, while 4th century BCE grammarian,Pāṇini, mentions the city in hisAṣṭādhyāyī.[8]
According to John Marshall, Taxila emerged as a centre of learning after the Persian conquests due to its geographical position, "at the North-Western gateway of the subcontinent," and the "cosmopolitan character of her population."[1] It started as a Brahmanical seat of learning.[2] According to Frazier and Flood, the highly systemized Vedic model of learning helped establish BuddhistMahavihara at the site, and laterNalanda (mid 5th century CE),Odantapuri (8th century CE), andVikramashila (late 8th century CE).[9] These Buddhist institutions not only taughtVedic texts and the ritual but also the different theoretical disciplines associated with thelimbs or the sciences of the Vedas, which included disciplines such as linguistics, law, astronomy and reasoning.[9] Taxila was particularly renowned for Vedic science, medicine, and the arts, but both religious and secular subjects were taught, and even subject such as archery or astrology in.[1]
According to John Marshall, "In early Buddhist literature, particularly in theJatakas, Taxila is frequently mentioned as a university centre where students could get instruction in almost any subject, religious or secular, from theVeda to mathematics and medicine, even to astrology and archery."[1] The role of Taxila as a center of knowledge grew stronger under theMaurya Empire and Greek rule (Indo-Greeks) in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.[1] In the early centuries CE it was a prominent centre ofBuddhist scholarship as well.[3]
It was not a university in the modern sense, in that the teachers living there may not have had official membership of particular colleges,[10][11][12] in contrast to the laterNalanda university inBihar.[12][13][14]
The destruction byToramana in the 5th century CE seem to have put an end to the activities of Taxila as a centre of learning.[15]
Chanakya, the influential, 4th century BCE, Prime Minister of the founder of the Mauryan Empire,Chandragupta Maurya, is also said to have been teaching at Taxila.[16]
Kumāralāta, according to the 3rd century CE Chinese Buddhist monk and traveller Yuan Chwang,Kumāralāta, the founder ofSautrāntika school was also an excellent teacher at Taxila and attracted students from as far asChina.[17]
Students with their oblong palettes used for writing, in theGreco-Buddhist art of Gandhara. The youngBuddha accompanying them to go to school is also part of the complete scene. 2nd-3rd century CE,Victoria and Albert Museum.Bhir Mound, excavation of ancient buildings.
According toStephen Batchelor, theBuddha may have been influenced by the experiences and knowledge acquired by some of his closest followers in the foreign capital of Taxila.[18] Several contemporaries, and close followers, of the Buddha are said to have studied in Taxila, namely:
Aṅgulimāla, a close follower of the Buddha. A Buddhist story about Aṅgulimāla (also called Ahiṃsaka, and later a close follower of Buddha), relates how his parents sent him to Taxila to study under a well-known teacher. There he excels in his studies and becomes the teacher's favorite student, enjoying special privileges in his teacher's house. However, the other students grow jealous of Ahiṃsaka's speedy progress and seek to turn his master against him.[19] To that end, they make it seem as though Ahiṃsaka has seduced the master's wife.[20]
Charaka, the Indian "father of medicine" and one of the leading authorities inAyurveda, is also said to have studied at Taxila, and practiced there.[2][22]
Chandragupta Maurya, Buddhist literature states that Chandragupta Maurya, the future founder of the Mauryan Empire, though born nearPatna (Bihar) in Magadha, was taken by Chanakya for his training and education to Taxila, and had him educated there in "all the sciences and arts" of the period, including military sciences. There he studied for eight years.[23] The Greek and Hindu texts also state that Kautilya (Chanakya) was a native of the northwest Indian subcontinent, and Chandragupta was his resident student for eight years.[24][25] These accounts matchPlutarch's assertion thatAlexander the Great met with the young Chandragupta while campaigning in thePunjab.[26][27]
^Altekar (1965), p. 109: "It may be observed at the outset that Taxila did not possess any colleges or university in the modern sense of the term."
^F. W. Thomas (1944), inMarshall (1951), p. 81: "We come across severalJātaka stories about the students and teachers of Takshaśilā, but not a single episode even remotely suggests that the different 'world renowned' teachers living in that city belonged to a particular college or university of the modern type."
^ab"Taxila".Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Archived fromthe original on 22 December 2007: "Taxila, besides being a provincial seat, was also a centre of learning. It was not a university town with lecture halls and residential quarters, such as have been found at Nalanda in the Indian state of Bihar."
^Modelski, George (1964). "Kautilya: Foreign Policy and International System in the Ancient Hindu World".American Political Science Review.58 (3). Cambridge University Press (CUP):549–560.doi:10.2307/1953131.JSTOR1953131.S2CID144135587.
^"Sandrocottus, when he was a stripling, saw Alexander himself, and we are told that he often said in later times that Alexander narrowly missed making himself master of the country, since its king was hated and despised on account of his baseness and low birth". Plutarch 62-4"Plutarch, Alexander, chapter 1, section 1".
Wilson, Liz (2016),"Murderer, Saint and Midwife", in Holdrege, Barbara A.; Pechilis, Karen (eds.),Refiguring the Body: Embodiment in South Asian Religions, SUNY Press, pp. 285–300,ISBN978-1-4384-6315-5
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