Taxila university was one of the oldest universities of the world with which were associated a number of renowned learned personalities of different disciplines. Its strategic location caused its fame to flourish, but unlike Nalanda, it is not considered as a university in the modern sense. Discuss.

Renowned scholars

Tradition links Panini, Kautilya and Jivaka, physician to Bimbisara, with Taxila, and Pali texts say Prasenajit of Kosala studied there.

Range of disciplines

The Vedas, the eighteen sippas, medicine, law and military science drew princes and commoners alike.

Gateway location

As Gandhara's capital on the Uttarapatha, where roads from Bactria, Persia and Central Asia met the Gangetic plain, it absorbed ideas under Achaemenid, Mauryan, Indo-Greek and Kushana rule until Huna raids in the 5th century CE.

Teacher-centred system

Each acharya taught a few pupils in his own home, set his own course and took a fee or service, with no corporate body, examination or degree, as A.S. Altekar noted.

Nalanda's institutional form

Nalanda (5th century CE, under Kumaragupta I) had monasteries, an entrance test, endowed villages and, per Xuanzang, about 10,000 students and 1,500 teachers.

Higher learning in substance

Pupils came after basic schooling for specialised study, so Taxila was advanced in content if not in structure.