Rajgir, Sept. 19: Eight hundred or so years ago, Nalanda’s great centre of learning perished under the hoof of a new ruling order, ransacked and cindered by warlord Bakhtiyar Khilji, freshly arrived from the Mameluk conquest of Delhi.

This afternoon, a rekindling was staged close to the grand ruins under unmissable intimations of another regime change. Chancellor Amartya Sen, no favourite by some distance of the Narendra Modi dispensation, opted to bunk the opening of the institution of his pioneering. In a felicitation message, Sen cited “duties at Harvard” to explain his notable absence, but real reason should have escaped few: the celebrated laureate and Modi critic isn’t a terribly welcome presence on campus anymore.

Backstage, as external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj lit the inaugural lamp on Nalanda University (NU), a member of the exclusive Mentor Group whispered out his sense of what’s only speculation at the moment. “You know Amartya Sen’s term as Chancellor comes up for renewal next July and no guesses on what will happen. There is a political significance to who is here and who isn’t, and it is for nobody to ignore.”

Sen’s presence at NU, even as a missive despatched from afar, may already be a shadow in retreat. And former chief minister Nitish Kumar, who seeded the NU project, has verily been packed off it, not even among the invitees.

Vice-chancellor Gopa Sabharwal was about the only one to script Sen and Nitish into her gratitude list, along with that other entity who has probably been made to forget what it is like to be thanked: former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. As she set out to “celebrate” what she called the “resurrection” of NU, Sabharwal unveiled her wish to be grateful for this day to Manmohan Singh, Nitish and Sen for spurring the enterprise. She then invokes Swaraj and said, “And of course we are thankful to the external affairs minister for her interest and her engagement.”

Shortly before the formalities began, Sabharwal told The Telegraph she had been elated to see the new government at the Centre “take ownership” of NU, mandated by an act of Parliament as a ministry of external affairs (MEA) enterprise. “Both Sushma Swaraj and the MEA have responded quickly and positively, which is very heartening for us,” Sabharwal said. “It is now upon all of to prove we can deliver a world class institution.”

Having arrived at today’s well-appointed cameo opening at the Rajgir International Convention Centre against many odds, Sabharwal was not deluded she had only brought her mission to the beginning of an uphill endeavour. “This is a day to celebrate the resurrection of Nalanda for our times. But this milestone is only the starting point of a challenging journey, a lifetime opportunity that will only be achieved through unity and solidarity,” she said.

Foreign minister Swaraj, for her part, responded with ready assurance. “This university is not the pride of Nalanda or of Bihar alone,” she said, turning to Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi seated beside her.

“This is what all of India draws esteem from, and we wish to see Nalanda return to its old worldwide glory. And this has been a commitment across party and political lines, unanimously.”

Swaraj then addressed a small clutch of diplomats in attendance, saying: “Some of your nations have taken keen interest in Nalanda and come forward to help. What we want is to expand the engaged international circle for Nalanda, and create a truly international university where students from across the world will want to come and study.” The international presence included the envoys of Thailand and Singapore, and officials from Vietnam, Laos, Germany and the UK. Also among the invitees sat NU mentors Lord Meghnad Desai and N.K. Singh.

Briefly, towards the end, Swaraj turned away from her prepared text in English — “for the benefit of international guests” — and ventured in evocative Hindi to a round of applause. “Nalanda was not a university but a tradition,” she said. “And traditions don’t die, they just become dormant sometimes. Today we have revived it.”

One legend has it there were so many books in the libraries of old Nalanda that they kept the cooking fires of Bakhtiyar Khilji’s soldiers going for six months. The new NU has 15 students and 11 faculty, a set “wonderfully small and organic”, is how Dean Archana Sharma put it. They don’t have a campus yet, not to speak of a library; a small local hotel is the NU’s camp address. Vice-chancellor Sabharwal was right, today was merely the inauguration of a challenge.

Amartya Sen may not be on the road ahead, but the pledged Rs 2,727 crore kitty should afford them some conversion of dream to reality.