page_title: Nalanda
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Nalanda / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of a statue of Buddha from ancient Nalanda in Bihar.
context_page_description: Nalanda was an ancient Mahavihara, a revered Buddhist monastery which also served as a renowned centre of learning, in the ancient kingdom of Magadha in India. The university of Nalanda obtained significant fame, prestige and relevance during ancient times, and rose to legendary status due to its contribution to the emergence of India as a great power around the fourth century. The site is located about 95 kilometres southeast of Patna near the city of Bihar Sharif, and was one of the greatest centres of learning in the world from the fifth century CE to c. 1200 CE. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  At its peak the school attracted scholars and students from near and far, with some travelling from Tibet, China, Korea, and Central Asia. The highly formalised methods of vedic studies helped the establishment of large teaching institutions such as Taxila, Nalanda, and Vikramashila, which are often characterised as India's early universities. Archaeological evidence also notes contact with the Shailendra dynasty of Indonesia, one of whose kings built a monastery in the complex.
context_section_description: Nalanda was initially a prosperous village by a major trade route that ran through the nearby city of Rajagriha (modern Rajgir) which was then the capital of Magadha. It is said that the Jain thirthankara, Mahavira, spent 14 rainy seasons at Nalanda. Gautama Buddha too is said to have delivered lectures in a nearby mango grove named Pavarika and one of his two chief disciples, Shariputra, was born in the area and later attained nirvana there. This traditional association with Mahavira and Buddha tenuously dates the existence of the village to at least the 5th–6th century BCE.
  
  Recent archaeological discoveries have pushed back Nalanda's history to 1200 BCE. The earliest occurrences of Northern Black Polished Ware have been recorded and carbon dated from the site of Juafardih. A mud brick stupa has also been carbon dated to 6th-5th century BCE which bolsters the case for Nalanda as an important Buddhist site since its early period.
  Not much is known of Nalanda in the centuries hence. The 17th-century Tibetan Lama, states that the 3rd-century BCE Mauryan and Buddhist emperor, Ashoka, built a great temple at Nalanda at the site of Shariputra's chaitya. He also places 3rd-century CE luminaries such as the Mahayana philosopher, Nagarjuna, and his disciple, Aryadeva, at Nalanda with the former also heading the institution. Taranatha also mentions a contemporary of Nagarjuna named Suvishnu building 108 temples at the location. When Faxian, an early Chinese Buddhist pilgrim to India, visited Nalo, the site of Shariputra's parinirvana, at the turn of the 5th century CE, all he found worth mentioning was a stupa.
caption: A statue of Gautama Buddha at Nalanda in 1895.
exif: {"Image Software": "Picasa", "Image DateTime": "2014:09:18 19:17:37", "Image ExifOffset": "78", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "0aa027407cf696b6a7d0910112e1a7cf"}