Nalanda: The great university

The Nalanda Safarnama is a 5.1 km route across 4 stops, from Nava Nalanda Mahavihara to Nalanda Mahavihara, part of the Buddhist Circuit. See the whole trail.

Nava Nalanda Mahavihara

Around Nalanda: ancient Nalanda Mahavihara ruins, not the modern campus
Around Nalanda: ancient Nalanda Mahavihara ruins, not the modern campus. Photo: Odantapuribs, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
0 km into the route

Nava Nalanda Mahavihara is a deemed university at Nalanda, established in 1951 under Rajendra Prasad to revive the ancient seat of learning.

Xuanzang Memorial Hall

2.9 km into the route
Xuanzang Memorial Hall
Photo: Tabish q, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Xuanzang, the 7th-century Chinese monk, scholar and translator, studied at Nalanda, and his travelogue, the Records of the Western Regions, is a key source on the university. Its library supplied many of the Sanskrit texts pilgrims like him carried to East Asia.

Nalanda Archaeological Museum

5 km into the route
Nalanda Archaeological Museum
Photo: Sumitsurai, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sculptures, coins, seals and inscriptions found in the ruins of Nalanda are on display in the Nalanda Archaeological Museum nearby, among them a large image of Avalokiteshvara found near a stairway shrine.

Nalanda Mahavihara

5.1 km into the route
Nalanda Mahavihara
Photo: Odantapuribs, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Nalanda was a great Buddhist monastery in ancient Magadha, often called the world's first residential university. It operated for almost a thousand years, from 427 CE until around 1400 CE.

4 stops · 5.1 km · The Buddhist Circuit
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