The Bank was started mostly to meet the needs of foreign trade during the period. The first European Bank in India was started in Calcutta in 1770 by one of the leading agency houses viz., M/S Alexander & Company under the name 'The Bank of Hindoostan'. All through the period of ancient Indian history, moneylenders who were called either bankers, or Seths, or Shroff's are recorded to have carried on a roaring business in money lending and banking. If University could be saved in the past in its original form, then we might have felt proud as on today for its existence as the world's oldest University.Дuring the Moghul period, bankers were fairly prominent in the financing of trade and the use of instruments of trade and rendered service to the East India Company in the early days of British occupation. The banking system in India was there since the Vedic age and the formal description was not obtained due to the loss of the written materials at Nalanda University. The destruction of the world oldest University physically and intellectually by the outsiders indicate that India had a glorious past in terms of knowledge too.

It is a common logic that no one in the world will attack a poor country as it is only a stage of adventurism which is itself a proof of our richness in wealth and knowledge. It is quite clear that there was no single instance of attack to the rest of the world but the number of Invaders who have attacked our motherland in the past starting from the age of Kingdom. India was a rich country from its origin and this holy motherland has given birth to too many Philosophers and Scientists who have made valuable contribution to the whole world. Indians were the torch bearers of knowledge for the entire world in ancient times.

(The writer isState Project Administrator, Ministry of Education.)

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