[Buddha-l] Nalanda photos

[Artur Karp]

"I can't check the accuracy of his paraphrase until examining the book."

Exactly. A good policy, to examine original texts.

"The Persian historian Minhaj-i-Siraj, in his chronicle the
Tabaqat-I-Nasiri, reported that thousands of monks were burned alive and
thousands beheaded as Khilji tried his best to uproot Buddhism the burning
of the library continued for several months."

Thousands are definitely not sufficient. It's to be expected that in the
next version of this Wikipedia article the numbers of killed and burnt
alive will run into tens of thousands


"Bakhtiyar Khilji asked: "Is there a Qur'an in this library?" and when he
was told no, he ordered that the place be torched".

Quoted and re-quoted zillions of times. Paraphrases of paraphrases, without
any agenda, of course. Also at Daniel Pipes' "Middle East Forum":

"What is most savage is that this Muslim thug asked his fellow thugs and
criminals: "is there a Qur'an in this library?" and when he was told no he
ordered that the place is to be torched" [submitted by dhimmi no more].


This fellow, Khilji, he must have nurtured a special grudge against the
Buddhists - a childhood molestation memory? - and their books (but not
against the idolatrious Hindus), and that is why he asked, not caring for
the copyright, the famous question: "Is there a Qur'an in this library?"

But I like even more this bit of literature published at:

http://in.answers.yahoo.com<http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091220043852AAoXuN1>

That day there was some peril in the heart of the Principal of Nalanda
because Pal king Govind Pal had almost been defeated by
Muahmmad-bin-Akhtiyaar. Principal was highly worried about the future of
Nalanda. He recalled that golden period when a traveler came to India at
the time of Principal SheelBhadra. Then he went to the rooms of the big
libraries Ratnasagara, Ratnodadhi and Ratnaranjaka. He took out some book
from the shelf. Then he look around the room. Millions of books were
looking like the bricks of castle that was built for Goddess Saraswati. "My
ancestors have spend thousands of years to collect this Gyan, Oh God ! Save
this Gyan from disappearing in the flames", thought the Principal. It was
very difficult for him to see the every corner of Nalanda because it was
like a big city. Hundreds of pounds, reading rooms and parks look a like a
country itself.
Just then a messenger came and said, "Sir, Arya Govind Pal has been
defeated and slaughtered."
The principal has realized that it was not peril, it was the reality of
future. He ran towards the statue of Arya Nagarjuna and requested him to do
something but he himself knew that it is merely a statue. He went towards
the tree where the snake Nalanda lived, He requested him to save this
University and the lives of 15000 students and 1000 teachers because the
University was named on its name.
But he knew that his every effort was futile. Without wasting a single
moment he announced emergency in the University. All students were ordered
to leave the University immediately but It was too late because all the
Muslim soldiers had covered all temples, Pagodas and the University
Nalanda. There was no escape.
After three days, when a shepherd went there, he saw a ground that was
created after collapsing a mountain. The ground was covered with the crows
and vultures who were enjoying a feast. Feast of blood and flesh of the
students who came here to earn Gyan from the countries like China, Japan,
Tibet, Burma, Greek, Malay etc.
Three gigantic libraries were still smoldering and kept smoldering for a
couple of months. Gyan that was collected by the mankind in this Aryavart
had again mingled into the Shoonya."

Already fifteen thousands, as predicted.


Artur


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