The University of Nalanda c13.39

c13.39

Whether the students had to do some desk-work is a moot point. But it appears that the only writing work the student had to do, was in the form of copying out manuscripts, the most important of these manuscripts being the *Prajñāpārmitā*. We have got epigraphical evidence to show that copying of manuscripts was one of the important activities of the students.² Hiuen Tsiang and I-Tsing carried away hundreds of manuscripts from India, and many of them were copied by them, perhaps, at Nālandā. For this purpose, very likely the slabs of stone were carved out in the Buddhist caves, as at Ellora, so that the student could put the book he was reading on the slab and use the same when he wanted to write.