The University of Nalanda c17.50

c17.50

“The outside stone plinth having been cleared, Dr. Spooner came to some foundation stones, on which the superstructure rests, and still lower down to what appeared to be a brick pavement a few feet wide, at the edge of which, a trench was dug down some 8 ft. From the evidence disclosed in this operation, it became clear that the stone-temple above was a much later structure erected over an older brick building; and as the panels of the plinth, according to Dr. Spooner, are assignable to about the sixth or seventh century A.D., it would appear that these materials were taken from an older building and utilized in the decoration of this temple, the level of which, in relation to the other strata, disclosed in the Nālandā area postulates a considerably later date for it. Dr. Spooner continues: ‘The exquisite quality of the carvings shows that their date must have been not far distant from Imperial Gupta times’.