The University of Nalanda c13.155

c13.155

But we tread on much surer ground, when we read the records of the Chinese travellers. Fa-hien speaks of two monasteries at Pāṭliputra—modern Patna—where resided six to seven hundred monks. Besides Buddhist monks, there were students also who had repaired thither in search of truth.² These monks must be lay devotees, but learned in Buddhist as well as other contemporary philosophies. If, there were so many learned monks the number of students who approached them must be evidently much larger. Even a most moderate estimate would come to one thousand.