Historical Geography of Ancient India c8.357

c8.357

*Nālandā.*—Nālandā is a suburb of Rājagṛha in Magadha. The name Nālandā is derived from the name of a dragon called Nālandā which used to live in a tank to the south of the Nālandā monastery in a mango wood. Ju-lai as a P’usa had once been a king with his capital at Nālandā. As the king had been honoured by the epithet ‘Nālandā’ or ‘Insatiable in giving’ on account of his kindness and liberality, this epithet was given as its name to the monastery. The grounds of the establishment were originally a Mango Park bought by 500 merchants for ten koṭis of gold coins and presented by them to the Buddha. Soon after the Buddha’s death, Śakrāditya, a former king of this country, esteeming the one Vehicle and reverencing the Three Precious Ones, built the monastery (Watters, *On Yuan Chwang*, II, p. 164). Yuan Chwang does not accept the explanation of the word, ‘Nālandā’ which derived its name from that of the dragon of the tank in the Mango Park. He prefers the Jātaka story which refers the name to the epithet ‘Insatiable in giving’ (*na-alam-dā*) given to the Buddha in a former existence as the king of this country (Watters, *On Yuan Chwang*, II, 166).