The University of Nalanda c13.164

c13.164

Assuming that 10,000 is an exaggeration, because the ancient chronicler was generally prone to be grandiloquent—specially where figures were concerned—and took delight in good round numbers, still taking into consideration other circumstances—especially the fame of Nālandā as a knowledge-resort—we can say that the number of students must be approximately 3000 to 5000. Moreover, this estimate comes very near the number mentioned by I-Tsing. "The number of priests in the Nālandā monastery," writes I-Tsing "is immense, and exceeds three thousand."³ If I-Tsing refers both to students and priests, who were their professors, even then the number is pretty large; if, however, he refers to students only, then, as we have argued while speaking of other Universities, the number of students would be more than 3000. This number we have already deduced from Hiuen Tsiang's records.