Vikramaśīla

One of the great Buddhist monastic universities of ancient India, located about 150 miles east of Nālandā near the present-day city of Bhagalpur on the Ganges. Tibetan sources provide most of the known details about this university since a number of masters from Vikramaśīla were active in Tibet during the Second Transmission period. It was founded in the early 9th century through the inspiration of Haribhadra and the patronage of the Pāla King Dharmapāla. Tantric Buddhist studies particularly flourished here under the guidance of such masters as Buddhaśrījñāna and Nāropa, although a number of celebrated masters of Buddhist logic (pramāṇa) also taught here such as Jñānaśrīmitra. Like the other nearby Buddhist universities of Nālandā and Odantapurī, Vikramaśīla was plundered and destroyed by invading Muslim raiders in the 12th century ce.