Nalanda University, Nalanda

Taxila, also known as Takshashila, flourished in the kingdom of Gandhar from 600 BC to 500 AD.

• This university taught 68 subjects and, according to ancient texts, the minimum entry age was 16.
• At one point, it had 10,500 students from Babylon, Greece, Syria, and China.
• Master teachers taught the Vedas, languages, grammar, philosophy, medicine, surgery, archery, politics, warfare, astronomy, accounts, commerce, documentation, music, dance, and other performing arts, futurology, the occult, and mystical sciences, and complex mathematical calculations.
• The university's masters panel included legendary scholars such as Kautilya, Panini, Jivak, and Vishnu Sharma. As a result, the concept of a full-fledged university emerged in India.
• During the 800 years that the university was in operation, it rose to prominence. Its campus was one mile long and half a mile wide. It also had 300 lecture halls with stone benches for seating, as well as laboratories and other facilities.
• For astronomical research, the university, for example, had a towering observatory called the Ambudharaavlehi. It was home to a massive library known as Dharma Gunj, or the Mountain of Knowledge, which was housed in three buildings known as Ratna Sagar, Ratnodavi, and Ratnayanjak.
• The entrance examination was extremely difficult, with only three out of every ten students passing it. Despite this obstacle, the Chinese traveler Hien Tsang wrote in his diary that Nalanda University had 10,000 students and 200 professors.

Nalanda University in modern-day Bihar was also a great university with a library that once housed 9 million books. It served as a hub of learning for scholars from all over Asia. Many Greek, Persian, and Chinese students attended classes at Nalanda. The university was destroyed in the 11th century by pillaging Muslim invaders who overran India.