1- The life of Xuanzang, Book-III, page 101, travels, chapter XIV, Magadha, page 86
Crossing the Ganges we come to the kingdom of Magadha. This kingdom is 5000Li in circuit. There are about 50 Sangharamas and 10,000 priests, mostly attached to Great vehicle.
2- Book-III, page 112
The priests, belonging to the convent or strangers always reach to the number of 10,000
3- “Travels”- Thomas Watters, chapter-XIV, page 86
Crossing the Ganges we come to the kingdom of Magadha. This kingdom is 5000Li in circuit. There are about 50 Sangharamas and 10,000 priests, mostly attached to Great vehicle.
Itsing - Itsing puts the number of students to 3000
Hwui Lun -There are about 3500 priests in the temple at Nalanda
Dharmasvamin -The Mahasanghrama was counting its last days when Dharmasvamin visited the monastery. There were around 70 students and two monastic units were in use
There is a general perception of 10,000 students staying in this big complex during the time of Xuanzang visit. But on a closer look and a thoughtful analysis we find neither is this true but also not possible. Xuanzang in his “Travel” and “Life” accounts has mentioned about 10,000 students and over 50 monasteries for the Magadha region this is usual of Xuanzang as he has mentioned about the area, number of monasteries, Higher or Lower vehicle and approximate number of monks in the monasteries of all the kingdoms he has visited. Further in the “Life” accounts he says “The priests, belonging to the convent or strangers always reach to the number of 10,000”, we must notice the word strangers, always and reach in the context. This is probably reference to some lay disciples or monks, priests and students reaching there for attending some important discourse, functions and festivals and not the actual residents of the Mahasanghrama. This is corroborated with the description in “Life” where he tells about his welcome at Kulika.
Page 106,
Halting here for short refreshment, then with two hundred priests and some thousand lay patrons, who surrounded him as he went, recounting his praises, and carrying standards, umbrellas, flowers and perfumes, he entered Nalanda.
Moreover he has mentioned that there are 50+ sangharamas and 10,000 students in whole of Magadha region of which Nalanda Mahasanghrama was also apart. Further we have accounts of It-sing and Hwui Lun who mention of 3000 and 3500 students at their time respectively
We try to examine the possible capacity of sangharama at the time of Xuanzang
Assumptions
1- There were 5 monasteries in working condition as per the Xuanzang accounts
2- Monasteries were 4 storeys ( Maximum)
3- Monasteries had same monastic plan as the excavated remains
The calculations:
If there is double occupancy- 562X 2 = 1124students
We see the maximum students as per the description where 1110. He has mentioned about separate chambers for the priests which again is in 4 stages. In any case this number is not exceeding 2000 students + teachers.
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