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Nalanda University flourished for more than seven centuries

bbc.com

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Re: Nalanda University flourished for more than seven centuries

#101

Post by Symbiote »

dandellion wrote: post #94
teleforce wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying that proper university did not exist before 11th century is disingenuous at its best and propaganda at its worst. It's like saying there is no proper engineering existed before civil engineering (civilian engineering) while military engineering has existed since time immomerial. There were numerous institutions of higher learning or universities in Muslim Spain, Middle East and Italian Sicily that the latter w…

> Ever wondered why all degrees granting universities using Arabic styled robe during graduation? I always assumed that's an American thing. I'm from southern Europe, I've graduated from university, and I've never seen anyone do the graduation with hats and capes, I've only seen it in Hollywood movies.

American universities probably inherit it from Britain, where it's very common.

But it's common across Europe, you can find plenty of pictures if you search things like "graduation robes Berlin" or Prague or Paris.

Re: Nalanda University flourished for more than seven centuries

#102

Post by raymondgh »

ugh123 wrote: post #55

Bare with me here: Why is it that articles need to start with lines like > "The winter morning was cloaked in thick fog..." and postpone the actual information pertaining to the title? Instead, we have to sift through irrelevant story-like content to get to the meat of the information and facts. Will one promise of tools like ChatGPT and their successors be to summarize-away this fluff?

I had the same reaction. I read the first line of the article and instantly knew I didn’t have the patience to find the content implied by the title. There have been discussions here about this problem for recipe sites especially. What I wonder is whether the majority of their readers (non HN people) also feel annoyed by this.

Re: Nalanda University flourished for more than seven centuries

#103

Post by cjohnson318 »

SeanLuke wrote: post #35
cjohnson318 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Propaganda is a strong term that suggests an ulterior motive. What is the ulterior motive here for calling Nalanda a university?

[flagged]

I'd rather not jump to conclusions or put words in your mouth. If you believe this is propaganda, then you believe that you know who is responsible for it, and why it benefits them. So, who is pushing this, and why?

Re: Nalanda University flourished for more than seven centuries

#104

Post by Symbiote »

stonogo wrote: post #97
nothrowaways wrote: post #2

9 million books and 10k students - Unrealistic.

Yale has 15k students and its library has a collection of 15 million. Cornell has 25k students and 10 million books.

Most of Cornell's books cost between $5 and, say, $200. They represent between less than an hour and a day's labour.

Copying a book in mediaeval times took months, so 9 million is an incredible amount of work. Other sources put the number of books in the low hundreds of thousands.

Re: Nalanda University flourished for more than seven centuries

#105

Post by Bayart »

teleforce wrote: post #52
SeanLuke wrote: post #17

[dead]

Saying that proper university did not exist before 11th century is disingenuous at its best and propaganda at its worst. It's like saying there is no proper engineering existed before civil engineering (civilian engineering) while military engineering has existed since time immomerial. There were numerous institutions of higher learning or universities in Muslim Spain, Middle East and Italian Sicily that the latter w…

>Ever wondered why all degrees granting universities using Arabic styled robe during graduation?

I can't say I've ever found anything Arabic about Western university dress. But it does ressemble clerical gowns which have been around since the Roman Empire, and as it happens Medieval students were part of the clergy...

Re: Nalanda University flourished for more than seven centuries

#106

Post by SeanLuke »

yrdmb wrote: post #95
SeanLuke wrote: post #17

[dead]

> These were religious schools So were most of the world greatest universities - harvard, yale, oxford, etc. Modern universities as we know it ( secular, research based, etc ) started with the humboldtian model in the 1800s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldtian_model_of_higher_ed... Neither Bologna, nor nalanda, are universities as currently defined.

So by your definition, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Coumbia, U Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Oxford, Paris, Liepzig, Bordeau, Glascow, Istanbul, Granada, Strassburg, Moscow, Berlin Technical, Freiberg Technical, Cambridge, practically every major Italian university, and hundreds of others aren't universities?

Just because Harvard had a religious school didn't mean it was as religious school.

Since 1088, when Bologna coined the term to describe its new institution, a university has been (1) an institution of higher education which (2) offers multiple official, publicly recognized diplomas in secular subjects among others. You can redefine it as you like but I think about 250 schools would have words with you.

Re: Nalanda University flourished for more than seven centuries

#107

Post by astrange »

dandellion wrote: post #94
teleforce wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying that proper university did not exist before 11th century is disingenuous at its best and propaganda at its worst. It's like saying there is no proper engineering existed before civil engineering (civilian engineering) while military engineering has existed since time immomerial. There were numerous institutions of higher learning or universities in Muslim Spain, Middle East and Italian Sicily that the latter w…

> Ever wondered why all degrees granting universities using Arabic styled robe during graduation? I always assumed that's an American thing. I'm from southern Europe, I've graduated from university, and I've never seen anyone do the graduation with hats and capes, I've only seen it in Hollywood movies.

It's from the UK.

Finland does hats and swords for PhDs though.

Re: Nalanda University flourished for more than seven centuries

#110

Post by yrdmb »

SeanLuke wrote: post #106
yrdmb wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These were religious schools So were most of the world greatest universities - harvard, yale, oxford, etc. Modern universities as we know it ( secular, research based, etc ) started with the humboldtian model in the 1800s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldtian_model_of_higher_ed... Neither Bologna, nor nalanda, are universities as currently defined.

So by your definition, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Coumbia, U Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Oxford, Paris, Liepzig, Bordeau, Glascow, Istanbul, Granada, Strassburg, Moscow, Berlin Technical, Freiberg Technical, Cambridge, practically every major Italian university, and hundreds of others aren't universities? Just because Harvard had a religious school didn't mean it was as religious school. Since 1088, when Bologna coined th…

> So by your definition, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Coumbia, U Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Oxford, Paris, Liepzig, Bordeau, Glascow, Istanbul, Granada, Strassburg, Moscow, Berlin Technical, Freiberg Technical, Cambridge, practically every major Italian university, and hundreds of others aren't universities?

They weren't initially. They tranformed into modern universities in the 1800s.

'A 1643 publication defined the university's purpose: "to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University

Do you think that's what harvard is about today?

> (1) an institution of higher education which (2) offers multiple official, publicly recognized diplomas in secular subjects among others.

A degree mill doesn't a univeristy make. Universities today have to be accredited. Who accredited Bologna? Nothing.

1088 Bologna is not anything anyone around the world considers a university. When people around the world found universities, nobody looks at 1088 Bologna. All modern universities are secular/research based institutions following the humboldtian model.

When harvard decided to transform from a religious institution to a modern university, they didn't look to bologna.

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