01Dharmapala’s foundation
Tibetan histories, Taranatha’s among them, say Dharmapala founded Vikramashila on a hill above the Ganga and appointed teachers to its six colleges, with gatekeeper-scholars at each door, as at Nalanda. The Pala kings ran it directly. The excavated monastery is a square of 208 cells around a great cruciform stupa-temple of brick, its terraces lined with terracotta plaques of gods, animals and everyday scenes.
02Atisha and the end
Atisha Dipankara Shrijnana, born in Bengal in 982, taught here before he left for Tibet around 1040 at the invitation of the kings of Guge; his teaching shaped the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Tibetan accounts say Vikramashila was destroyed by the Turkish army around 1203 and its abbot Shakyashribhadra fled to Tibet. Patna University excavated the site from 1960 to 1969 and the Archaeological Survey from 1972 to 1982.
The life of this place
- late 8th centuryDharmapala founds the mahavihara.
- c. 1040Atisha leaves Vikramashila for Tibet.
- c. 1203The monastery is destroyed in Bakhtiyar Khalji’s campaigns.
- 1960–82Patna University and then the ASI excavate the site.
About 50 km east of Bhagalpur at Antichak; a small site museum stands at the gate.
