ACHARYA NAGARJUNA UNIVERSITY – HISTORY

Acharya Nagarjuna, the profounder of the Madhyamika Buddhism is one of the greatest philosophers India has ever produced. The Buddhists of China, Japan and Tibet river him to be the Second Buddha, who once again set in the motion the wheel of Dharma. He endowed with metaphysical profundity and logical acumen has reaffirmed the basic ideas of Buddhism, apart from providing reinterpretation, clarification and amplification of new concepts of Buddhism. He focused on the fundamental problems of human existence, human aspiration and human actions. He found solutions to them through intuition and reflective thought. He applied and practiced these solutions and his doctrine and experience become a norm to motivate rational and sensitive minds of different generation in different countries with varied cultural environment. Hanayama Shinsho recognizing Nagarjuna’s contribution has opined that ‘he may well be called the progenitor of Mahayana thought’. The Madhyamika-karika testifies to the historicity to their author Nagarjuna, the great Buddhist philosopher, who extolled the path of Prajnaparamita. He wrote the Karika in order to expound the basic teaching of the Prajnaparamita-sutras.

Based on the Chinese author Tao-an (A.D.568) and Kumarjivas’ account and his date for Buddha’ nirvana and other material of a Japanese Scholar Hakaju concluded that Nagarjuna lived about 113-213 A.D. The fact being his friendship with a Satavahana King Gautamiputra Satakarni (130-150 A.D.) and his having spent the latter part of his career in the monastery built for him by this king at Bhramaragiri (Sriparvata). The Manjuasrimulakalpa and Tibetan sources contend that Nagarjuna had the Amaravati stupa renovated, enclosed and ornamented with the assistance of this King. Dhanyakataka and Sriparvata were the Centers of his activity. Rajatarangini of 11 th century treats him as a contemporary of Kanishka. thought’.

The name, Nagarjuna University is quite significant in that the great Buddhist preceptor and Philosopher Acharya Nagarjuna founded a University on the banks of river Krishna some centuries ago and made it a great centre of learning, attracting a large number of teachers and students form distant parts of the world. The University was established by Act 43 of 1976 of A.P. State Legislature and Governed by Act 4 of 1991 covering 6 Universities of the State. The present Acharya Nagarjuna University is not very far from the haloed spot, as it derives its moral and intellectual sustenance from Acharya Nagarjuna in which context the University has been renamed Acharya Nagarjuna University through the A.P. Universities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2004, promulgated by the Governor of Andhra Pradesh. The aspirations of the southern coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh to pursue Post-Graduate education nearer their homes resulted in the establishment of Acharya Nagarjuna University. In 1976, Andhra University started a Post-Graduate Centre in Nallapadu, Guntur Dt., Andhra Pradesh, as an Extension Center to cater to the needs of higher education of the people of this region. It is in the fitness of things that a University should grow from this Center to fulfill the desire of the people of this belt. Accordingly, Nagarjuna University came into being in August 1976.

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