Takshila was a famous University of Ancient India, located on the eastern bank of the Indus River at the crossroads of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. It is mentioned in Buddhist literature, particularly the Jatakas, as the capital of the kingdom Gandhara and a great center of learning. In the mid-nineteenth century, famous archaeologist Sir Alexander Cunningham uncovered the remains of Takshila. Here we will discuss more the ancient University of Takshila, which will be helpful for UPSC IAS Exam preparation.

Remnants of Takshila University

Takshila University - Background

• The ancient university of Takshila was located on the eastern bank of the Indus River in Punjab, in the city of Takshila (modern-day Pakistan).
• Takshila was a Buddhist study center in the early days. It is thought to date back to at least the 5th century BC, based on existing evidence.
• Takshila was founded in the 6th century BC, according to certain experts.
• Later in Jataka stories, about the 5th century AD, Takshila is mentioned in some detail.
• It was a well-known center of study for at least many decades before Christ, and scholars continued to flock there until the city was destroyed in the 5th century AD.

Takshila University - Features

• Chanakya's great treatise Arthashastra is claimed to have been written in Takshila.
• During the Maurya Empire and Greek control (Indo-Greeks) in the 3rd and 2nd century BCE, Takshila university continued to serve as a knowledge hub.
• It was a higher education center and offered over sixty courses in a variety of subjects.
• The Vedas, Vedanta, Vyakaran, Ayurveda, Surgery, eighteen crafts (Sippas), Military education including warfare and archery, Astronomy, Agriculture, Commerce, Politics, and other subjects were taught.
• This university educated over 10,500 students from all over Aryavrat and as far away as Greece, Arabia, and China.
• It was a residential campus that housed thousands of teachers.
• Among the notable teachers who are claimed to have taught at Takshila University are:
  • Panini, a renowned Sanskrit scholar, and grammarian, also taught at Takshashila. There, he wrote his best work, Ashtadhyayi (eight chapters). It was a complex, rule-based grammar book of Sanskrit that has survived to this day in its entirety.
  • Chanakya, the powerful Prime Minister of Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Mauryan Empire, is also supposed to have taught in Takshila.
  • According to Yuan Chwang, a 3rd-century Chinese Buddhist monk and traveler, Kumaralata, the founder of the Sautrantika school, was also an exceptional teacher at Takshila university and drew students from as far as China.
• Several of the Buddha's contemporaries and close followers are reported to have studied at Takshila, including:
  • Jivaka, Rajagriha's court doctor and the Buddha's personal doctor.
  • Charaka, the Indian "father of medicine" and one of the foremost Ayurvedic gurus, is also reported to have studied and practiced at Takshila.
  • Though Chandragupta Maurya, the eventual ruler of the Mauryan Empire, was born in Patna (Bihar) in Magadha, Buddhist literature claims that Chanakya took him to Takshila for his study and education.
• The university's operations appear to have come to an end with the destruction by Toramana in the 5th century CE.
  • Toramana, also known as Toramana Shahi Jauvla, was an Alcon Hun ruler who reigned in northern India during the late 5th and early 6th centuries CE.

Conclusion

Hindus and Buddhists regard it as a place of religious and historical sanctity, and it was the seat of Vedic learning where the emperor Chandragupta Maurya was taken by Chanakya to learn. The institution is significant in Buddhist tradition because it is thought to be the birthplace of the Mahayana sect of Buddhism. In the face of constant incursions by western nomads and kingdoms, Takshila University was essential in developing patriotic beliefs in the Indian subcontinent.