The University of Nalanda c13.105

c13.105

The records at our disposal are seldom sufficient to enable us to say exactly how many times in a day the students took their meals. This much, however, is certain that three meals, *viz.*, breakfast, lunch, and supper, which our modern students are accustomed to, were quite unknown to the Nālandā student, and in fact to all the students of ancient India. If there was something like our morning tea, which I-Tsing² calls morning meal with reference to the teacher, and simpler meal with reference to the pupil, the time for such a meal was quite different. Unlike the modern student, the ancient student could not take tea which consisted of rice-water³ immediately after cleaning his teeth, for after chewing his tooth-wood,⁴ he had to wait upon his teacher.⁵ And this would at least require an hour, after which the teacher partook of his cup of rice-water and then came the turn of the student. The actual time, according to the commentator Kāśyapa, for this meal, was just after sunrise.⁶ This rice-water, being more substantial than our tea or coffee, may as well be called a breakfast.