Bakhtiyar Khalji's invasion destroys Nalanda

1206

The Turkish general's cavalry raid into Bihar burned the great Buddhist monastery-university of Nalanda, whose libraries had sheltered learning for seven centuries. Monks were slaughtered or scattered; palm-leaf manuscripts fed bonfires. The destruction marked the effective end of institutional Buddhism in its Indian homeland. Surviving scholars fled to Tibet and Nepal, carrying fragments of the knowledge that Nalanda had preserved.