The University of Nalanda c2.13

c2.13

Why the Guptas bestowed all their wealth and generosity upon Nālandā, of all the places in Magadha, I have explained in Chapter III. Nālandā, even in the days of Buddha and Mahāvīra, was considered a fit place for spending the cāturmāsa (rain-retreat). And imbued with the holy memories of these Great Teachers, it gradually became a centre of learning and pilgrimage. Nālandā, therefore, was not such "an obscure and unimportant place" as Dr. Altekar has tried to make out in his recently published volume, *Education in Ancient India* and much less, a place that was "not in any way connected with the life of Buddha, and therefore of any particular sanctity to the Buddhist world." But centuries before the Guptas turned their eyes to Nālandā, it had become famous in the Buddhistic world.