Architecture of Ancient Nalanda University

I am doing the B.Arch course and I got an assignment to make sketch of the Architecture of Ancient Nalanda University? Can you please defined the Architecture of Ancient Nalanda University and give me some quality images of the university also?

Hey Buddy, I want to know the Architecture of Ancient Nalanda University so will you please tell me?

[pawan]

Nalanda, 88 kilometers from Patna in Bihar, was a flourishing center of religious learning from the fifth century CE and one of the first residential universities in the world.

The Nalanda University situated in an area of 14 hectares, with an extensive complex in red bricks, the university had a great reputation and many scholars from far and near flocked to the university.

This ancient center of higher learning received the patronage of the Gupta rulers and Buddhist Emperors like Harsha and others from the Pala Empire later on.

The architecture of this ancient university is quite unique and the old walled complex had one gate.

Ten temples, various classrooms and meditation halls were housed in eight compounds landscaped with beautiful parks and lakes.

The library at Nalanda had a vast collection of books and manuscripts; it was housed in a nine storied building and there were iron shelves for stacking the books which were protected with a covering of cloth and tied up.

The remains of six major brick temples and eleven monasteries in an area of more than a square kilometre was unearthed by the excavations conducted by the Archaeological Survey of India.

This illustrious university had over 10000 students and 2000 teachers in its prime. Destroyed by the Turk Bhaktiyar Khiljis army in 1193, the university fell to ruins.

The place was ransacked, the buildings and monasteries torched and the monks driven away. In the year 2006, India, China, Japan, Singapore and some other nations got together and chalked out a plan to restore and revive this place as Nalanda International University.

The Nalanda Museum was opened in January 2008 and is Indias first Multimedia Museum. 3D animation is used to recreate the history of Nalanda, making it all the more interesting for visitors.

The extensive planning and architecture of this residential university, complete with lakes and parks, reveals the extent to which learning was pursued in that day and age.