Ancient seats of learning that once drew scholars from across the known world stepped back into the spotlight on Saturday, 24 October 2026, as Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis addressed the IX International Principals' Educational Conference 2026 in Nagpur, invoking the legacy of Takshashila, Nalanda, and Vikramashila to argue that India's credentials as a global education powerhouse run deep — centuries deep.

Speaking at the gathering of school leaders, CM Fadnavis declared: 'Takshashila, Nalanda and Vikramashila put India's rich educational heritage on the world map.' In Marathi, he framed it as a matter of national pride — भारताचा समृद्ध शैक्षणिक वारसा जगाच्या नकाशावर अधोरेखित केला ('India's rich educational heritage has been underscored on the world map').

Three universities that shaped civilisations

Takshashila, located in present-day Pakistan, was arguably the subcontinent's first great university — drawing students in medicine, astronomy, and philosophy from as far as Greece and China. Nalanda in Bihar operated from the 5th to 12th century CE as a Buddhist centre of learning with a library said to span multiple buildings. Vikramashila, also in Bihar, rose in the 8th century as a hub of tantric and philosophical scholarship. Together, they represent an era when India was not merely a participant in global knowledge exchange — it was the destination.

Where ancient heritage meets the National Education Policy

The reference is not purely ceremonial. The National Education Policy 2020 explicitly names Nalanda and Takshashila as touchstones for integrating traditional Indian knowledge systems into contemporary curricula. By invoking them before an international audience of school principals, CM Fadnavis connects Maharashtra's ground-level education leadership to a national framework that asks modern institutions to look backward before they look forward.

Indian leaders across the political spectrum periodically return to these institutions when making the case for India's civilisational contribution to learning — but doing so at an international principals' conference in Nagpur, the state's winter capital, carries a particular signal: that the conversation is aimed as much at global peers as at domestic audiences.

What principals at Nagpur are being asked to carry home

For the school leaders gathered at the conference, the invocation carries a practical edge. The NEP's push for multidisciplinary, heritage-rooted education filters down ultimately to the principal's desk — timetables, electives, institutional culture. A chief minister standing before an international gathering and anchoring the argument in Takshashila and Nalanda is, in effect, asking educators to see themselves as stewards of a very long tradition. That is a large ask. Whether conference declarations translate into curriculum shifts in Maharashtra's classrooms is the question the coming months will answer.