Current situation of Nalanda Mahavihara

The excavated part of the ancient Nalanda Mahavihara is 1/10th of the existing remains. Rest of the mound is inhabited and buried under local peoples’ daily life and livelihood. The mound is surrounded by small and big water bodies from three sides. Earth removed from the water bodies were used in making the bricks used for the university.


Bricks of different sizes were used at different period, we will use the size
“18In X 13In X 4.5In”. We shall take 8 Feet as an average depth of water bodies for calculation of volume of earth used

Total area of 20 water bodies = 246.57 acres= 246.7 X 43560 Sq ft = 10746252 Sq ft
Volume of earth removed= 8 Ft X 10746252 Sq Ft = 85970016cu.ft
Volume of brick used at Nalanda = 1053 Cu.In= 0.609375Cu.Ft
Total no of bricks used= 141079001

Can you try and imagine that many number of bricks?


Villages on the Existing mound
1- Muzzafarpur
2- Kapatiya
3- Surajpur
4- Bargaon
5- DamanKhanda
6- Begampur
7- Mustafapur