Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c31.58

c31.58

**Problem of cultivating the lands owned by Monasteries.** As has been already stated, though the monks individually were not allowed to own property (except a few personal articles of daily use), they could own it collectively. Monasteries thus became owners of large properties by gifts and were able to maintain the monks from their own resources. The usual form of these properties was land. The lands in the possession of the Nālanda monastery gifted by "kings of many generations" "contained more than 200 villages" (p. 65).