Which one among the following educational institutions established under the Union Ministry of Culture is promoting to preserve, protect and promote Lord Buddha's teaching and value of love, compassion and non-violence for developing good moral values and practices?

Correct — C, Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Nalanda. The stem gives two filters and the answer has to pass both: the institution must be under the Union Ministry of Culture, and its work must be the preservation and teaching of the Buddha's message. Nava Nalanda Mahavihara passes both. It was founded in 1951 at the initiative of Rajendra Prasad, next to the ruins of the ancient Nalanda Mahavihara, to revive that seat of learning; it became a deemed-to-be university in 2006; it teaches Pali, Buddhist philosophy, ancient Indian history, culture and archaeology, and Tibetan studies; and it is an autonomous body of the Ministry of Culture, with the Union Culture Minister as its Chancellor. The other three fail the first filter before the second even matters, since all of them answer to the Ministry of Education. Keep one further distinction ready. Nava Nalanda Mahavihara is not Nalanda University at Rajgir, which was revived by an Act of 2010 and works under the Ministry of External Affairs as an East Asia Summit project.

• (a)Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla — A residential centre for advanced research in the humanities and social sciences, housed in the old Viceregal Lodge. It funds fellows across many subjects, it is not Buddhist in remit, and it is an institution of the Ministry of Education.
• (b)National Council of Educational Research & Training, New Delhi — NCERT advises on school education and writes the national textbooks. It sits under the Ministry of Education and has no religious or heritage mandate.
• (d)IGNOU, New Delhi — A national open university under the Ministry of Education. It does offer courses in Buddhist studies, which is what makes the option survive a first glance, but the parent ministry is wrong and preserving the Buddha's teaching is not what the university was established for.

The ancient Nalanda Mahavihara in Bihar was a monastic university that drew students from across Asia between about the fifth and twelfth centuries, and its ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Nava Nalanda Mahavihara is the modern institution founded beside those ruins in 1951 to carry on the same learning: Pali language, the Buddhist canon and the history and archaeology of the region. It is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture and has held deemed-university status since 2006.

Items of this shape are solved by ministry, not by subject. Three of the four options are famous enough that a candidate can waste a minute weighing their merits, when the stem has already narrowed the field to bodies under the Ministry of Culture. IIAS Shimla, NCERT and IGNOU are all Ministry of Education institutions, so each is out on the first clause. It is worth learning the Culture ministry's list once — the akademis, IGNCA, CCRT, the Archaeological Survey, the National Archives, the museums, and Nava Nalanda Mahavihara — because the same list answers several questions a year. The one confusion that survives is between the two Nalandas: the Mahavihara at Nalanda under Culture, and Nalanda University at Rajgir under External Affairs.

• Nava Nalanda Mahavihara was founded in 1951 at the initiative of Rajendra Prasad to revive the ancient seat of learning at Nalanda.
• It is an autonomous institution of the Ministry of Culture, with the Union Culture Minister as Chancellor, and became a deemed-to-be university in 2006.
• Its subjects are Pali, Buddhist philosophy, ancient Indian history, culture and archaeology, Tibetan studies, Sanskrit and Hindi.
• Nalanda University at Rajgir is a separate central university revived by the Nalanda University Act, 2010, and linked to the Ministry of External Affairs.
• The ruins of the ancient Nalanda Mahavihara were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2016.

• Choosing an institution because it teaches Buddhist studies, when the stem asks which ministry established it.
• Confusing Nava Nalanda Mahavihara with Nalanda University at Rajgir; they are different bodies under different ministries.
• Assuming IIAS Shimla belongs to the Ministry of Culture because it works on the humanities in a heritage building.

As an institution-to-ministry item like this one, or as a statements question mixing up the two Nalandas.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Nalanda University at Rajgir, revived by an Act of Parliament in 2010, is associated with which ministry of the Government of India?

  • (a)Ministry of Culture
  • (b)Ministry of External Affairs
  • (c)Ministry of Education
  • (d)Ministry of Minority Affairs

  Answer(b) Ministry of External Affairs — it was revived as an East Asia Summit initiative, which is why it sits with External Affairs rather than with Culture.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The ruins of the ancient Nalanda Mahavihara were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in which year?

  • (a)2004
  • (b)2010
  • (c)2016
  • (d)2021

  Answer(c) 2016 — the archaeological site of Nalanda Mahavihara in Bihar was inscribed that year.