Attack on Nalanda International University

Mohammad Baktyar was a Turkish bandit who established himself as the emperor of India. His 20000 soldiers and him were drown on the way back from Tibet to Northern India by the heavy monsoon rains. But that happened only after he killed the monks and the lecturers at the Nalanda International University. The fully armed soldiers arrived and were ready for an assault, but found that place empty. They carried on hunting for monks and nuns in or around the city. All the monks captured were either burned alive or beheaded. The nuns were either raped and killed or taken as sex slaves. The few monks who escaped the massacre fled with their Buddhist scriptures to secluded monasteries far away or traveled by ship to Burma. They also went to Chittagong, and the south eastern corner of Bangladesh. Some trekked north across the Himalayas to Nepal and Tibet. For some time, a few monks were still hiding near the ruined Nalanda. A Tibetan named Dharmaswamin confirmed that in 1235 CE, an old monk Rahula Sribhadra was teaching Sanskrit grammar to seventy students. A lay disciple, Jayadeva supported him and his students. While the Tibetan pilgrim was there, the Turkish soldiers returned for another raid to hunt down and kill any monk who dared to remain. These soldiers also ransacked the ruins hoping to find buried treasures. With the collapse of Buddhism in India, Buddhist shrines and monuments were either plundered, destroyed or left to ruin. The Buddhist Temples were converted to Hindu Temples. The extermination of Buddhist monks was a fatal blow to the Sangha in India as the laity was forced to convert to Islam or Hinduism. Hinduism and Jainism later were subjected to the same persecution but their priests were not so easily recognized to be targeted for killing. In the Bhruidatta Jataka, the Buddha questions the supposed divine justice of the creator as follows: “He who has eyes can see the sickening sight, why does not Brahma set the creatures right? If his wide power no limit can restrain: Why is his hand so rarely spread to bless? Why are his creatures all condemned to pain? Why does he not to all give happiness? Why do fraud, lies, and ignorance prevail? Why triumphs falsehood: truth and justice fail? I count you Brahma one the unjust who made a world in which to shelter wrong.”