The University of Nalanda c12.3

c12.3

The rites at Nālandā began with a bath in the morning. "Every morning," writes I-Tsing, "a *ghanti* is sounded to remind the priests of bathing-hour. Sometimes a hundred, sometimes a thousand (priests) leave the monastery together and proceed in all directions towards a number of great pools of water (near Nālandā) where all of them take a bath."[1] From the graphic description quoted above, it would appear that a morning bath was obligatory for all and that it could not be taken at any time one liked but at the prescribed hour only.