[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Science, technology and education](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science) › [The University of Nalanda](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.sankalia-1934) › c8.4 # The University of Nalanda c8.4 The University of Nālandā c8.4 - **Language:** English ### [c8.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.sankalia-1934.c8.4) In Sanskrit, a monastery is called a “\*saṅghārāma\*”¹. Sometimes the word “\*vihāra\*” is also used in the same sense. Now, by a “\*saṅghārāma\*” or a “\*vihāra\*” we understand a place where Bhikkhus \[—\] generally Buddhists \[—\] lived. “\*Ārāmas\*” i.e., parks were usually the places where Buddha put up with his disciples.² The resting place, where the \*saṅgha\* stayed, therefore, came to be called a “\*saṅghārāma\*”.³ These \*Bhikkhus\* had renounced the world; they were mendicants; their sole purpose in life was to practise and to propagate the religion of Buddha. To India such religious mendicants were not a novel thing. She had them in her Ṛṣis of the Vēdic and the Upaniṣadic times, in her \*Brahmacārins\*, and \*Sanyāsins\*. It was only the goal which differentiated the Buddhist \*Bhikkhus\* from the Ṛṣis and others. - [Previous: c8.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.sankalia-1934.c8.3) - [Next: c8.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.sankalia-1934.c8.5) - [Up: c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.sankalia-1934.c8) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.sankalia-1934.c8.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.sankalia-1934.c8.4) · Pramāṇa