Nalanda Post Office
4FF4+4G7, Nalanda, Bihar 803111, India
3.8
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Monday: 11–16
Tuesday: Close
Wedneasday: 11–16
Thursday: 11–16
Friday: 11–16
Saturday: 10–14
Sunday: Close
Tuesday: Close
Wedneasday: 11–16
Thursday: 11–16
Friday: 11–16
Saturday: 10–14
Sunday: Close
Not much is known of Nalanda in the centuries hence. Taranatha, the 17th-century Tibetan Lama, states that the 3rd-century BCE Mauryan and Buddhist emperor, Ashoka, built a great temple at Nalanda at the site of Shariputra's chaitya. He also places 3rd-century CE luminaries such as the Mahayanaphilosopher, Nagarjuna, and his disciple, Aryadeva, at Nalanda with the former also heading the institution. Taranatha also mentions a contemporary of Nagarjuna named Suvishnu building 108 temples at the location. While this could imply that there was a flourishing centre for Buddhism at Nalanda before the 3rd century, no archaeological evidence has been unearthed to support the assertion. When Faxian, an early Chinese Buddhist pilgrim to India, visited Nalo, the site of Shariputra's parinirvana, at the turn of the 5th century CE, all he found worth mentioning was a stupa.[24]