Telhara University ( 1st century )

Telhara is a village in the Nalanda district of Bihar, India.

 

According to historians, Telhara University’s reference has been found in the account of Chinese travellers Hiuen Tsang and Ithsing.

Telhara was the site of a Buddhist monastery in ancient India. It has been mentioned as Teladhaka in the writings of the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang, who visited the place in the 7th century CE. It has been also mentioned in the Ain-i-Akbari as Tiladah, and is shown as one of the 46 mahals (administrative units) of the Bihar sarkar. Telhara was shown as a pargana in the maps prepared by the East India Company administration during 1842-45.

The ruins of Telhara were mentioned in an 1872 letter by A. M. Broadley, the then Magistrate of Nalanda. The State Government of Bihar started a new excavation of the site in December 2009. The work unearthed ancient pottery, antiques, and the remains of a three-storeyed structure mentioned by Hiuen Tsang. Evidence of prayer halls and residential cells in the monastery have been found. The excavation revealed the following chronological layers:

1. Northern Black Polished Ware (3rd Century BCE)
2. Kushan (1st century CE)
3. Gupta ((5th to 7th century CE)
4. Pala (7th century to 11th century CE)

A number of sculptures from the site had been moved to museums during the British Raj. The Indian Museum in Kolkata houses the Maitreya and the twelve-armed Avalokiteswar images from Telhara. A Pala sculpture from the site is present at the Rietberg Museum in Zurich. Telhara has a mosque, which is said to have been built with the materials carried from the ruins of the Buddhist monastery. Remains of a university (Mahavihara) on the site were unearthed in 2014

 Atul Kumar Verma, director, archaeology, said the directorate of archaeology had got firm evidence of the Telhara University, about 40km from Nalanda.

“We have found the same monastery seal, which was found during the excavation carried out at the Nalanda University site. While we had discovered only two-three monastery seal then, we have found seven-eight similar seals this time. The monastery seals are made of terracotta and are in round shape. There is a wheel sign, flanked by two deer, on the seal also. The monastery seals, which we have found at Telhara, date back to thousand years and it is totally similar to the seals, which were found at the ruins of Nalanda University,” he added. He said the team, including conservator S.K. Jha, senior technical assistant Nand Gopal among others, had been carrying out excavation work at the site since 2009.

The directorate runs under the state, art, culture and youth affairs department. “What makes us more confident about our claims is the finding of three Buddhist temples, which Hiuen Tsang briefed in his account. Besides, we have also discovered a huge platform, which has the seating capacity of nearly thousand people. This platform has also got mention in Hiuen Tsang’s account. He has written that around a thousand monks used to sit for prayer on this platform. Our another important discovery is the teacher compartments. This has also got mention in Hiuen Tsang account,” said Verma.

The directorate has also got evidence that the varsity was equally popular in the Gupta period. “We have found sculptures made of red sandstone, which proves that the university was quite popular in the Gupta period. We have found pottery of different shapes and seals from the site of the Gupta period. There is a complete influence of the Gupta period in the strokes of writing, which we have found on the earthen pots. Another important finding is the 1ft layer of as — something similar found from the Nalanda University site. It is believed that Nalanda University was set on fire by Turkish Muslim army under Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193. We have got evidence that Telhara University was also burnt by Khilji on his way,” Verma said.