Education in Ancient India c7.s3.11

c7.s3.11

The Number of Scholars : When I-tsing was living at Nālandā (c. 675 A.D.), there were more than 3,000 monks residing in the establishment (p. 154). The biographer of Yuan Chwang states that in the second quarter of the seventh century the number of the residents of Nālandā would always reach 10,000 (p. 112). The biographer had never been to India and his information therefore was second hand. His figure seems to be a little exaggerated since it is given in round numbers, and since Yuan Chwang himself simply observes that there were some thousand brethren residing at the place (II p. 165). It would, however, seem certain that the actual number of the monks staying at Nālandā must have been at least about 5,000 towards the middle of the 7th century A. D.