Odantapuri

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Odantapuri (ओदंतपुरी) was a Buddhist Mahavihara in what is now Bihar, India. It was established by the Pala Emperor Gopala I in the 8th century. In the modern era, it is situated in Bihar Sharif, headquarters of Nalanda district.

Variants

• Uddandapura (उद्दंडपुर) दे. Odantipuri (ओदंतपुरी) (AS, p.96)
• Otantapuri (ओतन्तपुरी) = Odantapuri (ओदंतपुरी) (AS, p.117)
• Odantapuri (ओदंतपुरी) (जिला पटना, बिहार) (AS, p.117)
• Udantapuri (उदंतपुरी) (AS, p.117)
• Odantapura
• Uddandapura

History

It is considered the second oldest of India's Mahaviharas after Nalanda University and was situated in Magadha. Acharya Sri Ganga of Vikramashila was a student at this Mahavihara. According to the Tibetan records there were about 12,000 students at Odantapuri which was situated at a mountain called Hiranya-parvata and by the bank of the river Panchanan.

In a Tibetan history of the Kalachakra tantra by Ngakwang Künga Sönam, 27th Sakya Trizin (Wylie: ngag dbang kun dga' bsod nams,1597–1659), it is mentioned that Odantapuri was administered by "Sendha-pa", the Tibetan referent for a Śrāvakayāna Buddhist school. According to the Tibetan historian Tāranātha, King Mahāpāla supported 500 Śrāvakasaṅgha bhikshus at Odantapuri. As an annex to this monastery, he built a monastery called Uruvasa, where he supported 500 Sendha-pa or Sendhava Sravaka. During the reign of King Rāmapāla, a thousand monks, belonging to both Hinayana and Mahayana, lived in Odantapuri and occasionally even twelve thousand monks congregated there. According to Peter Skilling, the "Sendha-pa" Śrāvaka-s could possibly have been Sāmmatīya-s since the probable derivation of "Sendha-pa" is from the Sanskrit saindhava or ‘residents of Sindh’ where the Sāmmatīya-s were the predominant school. Tāranātha links the Sendhapa or Sendhava Śrāvaka monks at the Mahabodhi at Bodhgaya to the “Singha Island”, i.e. Sri Lanka, and “other places”.

A number of monasteries grew up during the Pala period in ancient Bengal and Magadha. According to Tibetan sources, five great mahaviharas stood out: Vikramashila, the premier university of the era; Nalanda, past its prime but still illustrious, Somapura Mahavihara, Odantapuri, and Jagaddala. The five monasteries formed a network; "all of them were under state supervision" and there existed "a system of co-ordination among them . It seems from the evidence that the different seats of Buddhist learning that functioned in eastern India under the Pala were regarded together as forming a network, an interlinked group of institutions," and it was common for great scholars to move easily from position to position among them.

The university perished, along with Nalanda, at the hands of Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji around 1193.

ओदंतपुरी

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है ...ओदंतपुरी (जिला पटना, बिहार) (AS, p.117) वर्तमान बिहार का प्राचीन नाम है। बिहार में स्थित ओदंतपुरी को 'उदंतपुरी' या 'उद्दंडपुर' भी कहते हैं। इसकी प्रसिद्धि का कारण था, यहाँ का बौद्ध विहार और तत्संबद्ध महाविद्यालय। आठवीं सदी के मध्य में बंगाल और बिहार में पाल वंश के संस्थापक गोपाल (730-740 ई.) ने यहाँ एक महाविहार की स्थापना की थी। अनुवर्ती पाल राजाओं ने इस विहार तथा महाविद्यालय को अनेक दान दिए थे। यह एक महत्त्वपूर्ण विद्या केन्द्र बन गया था। ओदंतपुरी की समृद्धि काल में यहाँ एक हज़ार विद्यार्थी शिक्षा पाते थे। दूर-दूर से विद्यार्थीगण शिक्षा पाने के लिए यहाँ रहत थे। यहाँ का सर्वप्रथम विद्यार्थी दीपंकर था, जो बाद में विक्रमशिला महाविद्यालय का प्रधान आचार्य बना और जिसने तिब्बत जाकर वहाँ लामा संस्था की स्थापना की। 13वीं शती के प्रारंभ में मुस्लिमों के बिहार पर आक्रमण के समय यहाँ का विहार और विद्यालय नष्ट हो गए। बिहार-बंगाल में ओदंतपुरी के लगभग समकालीन अन्य महाविद्यालय 'नालंदा', 'विक्रमपुर', 'विक्रमशिला', 'जगद्दल' और ताम्रलिप्ति में थे।