Nalanda ! a World Heritage Site by UNESCO

 It's a celebration time in Bihar. UNESCO has declared 

Bihar's much awaited ancient site - the ruins of Nalanda 

Mahavihara - a World Heritage Site, barely 98 km away from

 Patna. With the inclusion of Nalanda, this would be the

 second UNESCO Heritage Site after Mahabodhi temple in 

Bodh Gaya.

"Nalanda stands out as the most ancient university of the Indian Subcontinent. It engaged in the organized transmission of knowledge over an uninterrupted period of 800 years." The historical development of the site testifies to the development of Buddhism into a religion and the flourishing of monastic and educational traditions," said UNESCO on its website.

The highly formalized methods of Vedic learning helped inspire the establishment of large teaching institutions such as Taxila, Nalanda, and Vikramashila which are often characterised as India's early universities. Nalanda flourished under the patronage of the Gupta Empire in the 5th and 6th centuries and later under Harsha, the emperor of Kannauj. The liberal cultural traditions inherited from the Gupta age resulted in a period of growth and prosperity until the ninth century. The subsequent centuries were a time of gradual decline, a period during which the tantric developments of Buddhism became most pronounced in eastern India under the Pala Empire.

one of the world's oldest universities construction of which began in 5th century AD, flourished under the Gupta rulers. It came to an end in the 12th century when it was destroyed in 1193 AD by the invading Turkish army led by its commander Bakhtiar Khilji.