01The Pala foundation
Tibetan histories credit the founding of Odantapuri to the first Pala king Gopala, others to his successors. When the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen built Samye in the late 8th century with the help of Shantarakshita and Padmasambhava, the Tibetan accounts say its plan followed Odantapuri. The town that grew around it took its name from the word vihara, and became Bihar, the name that later passed to the whole province.
02The sack
Minhaj-us-Siraj, writing in the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri around 1260 from what a soldier of the raid told him, says Bakhtiyar Khalji attacked a walled place in Bihar with about two hundred horsemen. Most of its inhabitants were shaven-headed brahmanas, he writes, and they were all killed. Many books were found, and when no one was left who could read them the attackers learned that the place had been a college. The date usually given is about 1193, though some reckon a few years later. The site lies under modern Bihar Sharif and has never been properly excavated.
The life of this place
- 8th centuryEarly Pala kings found the mahavihara.
- c. 1193Bakhtiyar Khalji sacks the vihara, as told in the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri.
Nothing of the monastery is visible above ground; Bihar Sharif lies on the road between Nalanda and Patna.
