| Places of Interest |
| Introduction | Places of Interest | How to Reach |
| WHAT TO LOOK FOR |
| Ruins of ancient Nalanda |
The university of Nalanda was established in 450 AD under the patronage of the Gupta
emperors, notably Kumaragupta. It was one of the world's first residential universities. Its dormitories accommodated over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers.
The Nalanda varsity had eight separate compounds and ten temples besjdes many
meditation halls and classrooms. There were also lakes and parks. The subjects taught at the university covered every field of learning, and it attracted pupils and scholars from as far as
Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia and Turkey, among other countries.
Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang has given a detailed account of the university. The terracotta
seal of Nalanda University has been put on display in the ASI Museum at Nalanda. |
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| Pawapuri |
Lord Mahavir attained 'nirvana' (salvation from the endless cycle of life and death) at
Pawapuri,and thus the placeis a holy site for Jains.It is located 38 km from Rajgir in Nalanda
district and 90 km from Patna,and it was here that Lord Mahavir,the last of the 24 Jain Tirthankars,breathed his last around 500 BC. He was cremated at Pawapuri,also known as
APapuri (the sinless town).
There was a great rush to collect his ashes,and, as a result, so much soil was removed
from the place of his cremation that a pond was created.Now, an exquisite marble temple,
Jalmandir, stands magnificently on a rectangular island
in the middle of the pond.
There's another Jain
temple, Samosharan, here.
This is the placewhere Lord
Mahavir delivered his last sermon |
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| Kundalpu |
| Just 1.6 km from the
ruins of Nalanda is this place called Kundalpur. The
Digambar sect of Jains
believes that the 24th and
the last Tirthankar, Lord
Mahavir, was born here.
There are many Jain temples
in this village. |
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| Multimedia Museum |
|
India's first multimedia
museum was opened here
on January26, 2008. It has a
section that recreates the history of Nalanda using a 3D
animation film with narration
by TV and movie actor
Shekhar Suman. There are
four more sections in the
Multimedia Museum
Geographical Perspective
Historical Perspective,Hall o
Nalanda and Revival o
Nalanda. |
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| Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) Museum |
Nalanda,the archaeological museum set up in 1917, housesthe antiquities,mainly those
excavated from the earliest university cum monastery complex at Nalanda and from Rajgir. Out
of 13,463 antiquities, 349 are on display in the four galleries of the museum. The antiquities
from Nalanda are datable from 5th to 12th century AD but some of those from Rajgir are a little older. The sculptures kept in this museum are made of stone, bronzes, stucco and terracotta but majority of those have been carved on basalt stone.
Most of the idols belong to the Buddhist faith but there are also those belonging to Jain
and Hindu religions.
A scale model of excavated remains of Nalanda university occupies the central place of the
hall. There are 57 idols and sculptures displayed in the first gallery.
Opening hour:10 am to 5 pm
Friday closed
Entrance fee: Rs 2 per head
Free entry for children up to 15 years
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| Xuanzang Memorial Hall |
A memorial has been built and named after the Chinese traveller and scholar monk, Xuanzang, who was a student at Nalanda and subsequently became a teacher at the ancient
Nalanda Mahavihara.The magnificent hall is located barely 1.3 km away from the ruins of
Nalanda.
It was in January 1957 that India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, on behalf of the government of India, received the relics of Xuanzang along with his biographyand an endowment
for the construction of a hall in his memory from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lamaof Tibet. The initiative was aimed at enhancingthe cultural relationship between India
and China. The construction work started in 1960 and was completed in 1984.
The relics of Xuanzang have been preserved in the Patna Museum.
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