From the Historical accounts, the Mahavihar was noticed as having been one of the largest Buddhist universities of early medieval India which accommodated more than hundred teachers and about one thousand students, all of whom were carefully and specially selected only after rigorous intellectual examination by the 6 doorkeepers. It offered several subjects like theology, philosophy, grammar, metaphysics, logic along with tantrism as the most important branch of learning. With accounts of it having been the main administrative centre for other monasteries including Nalanda in the time of the Palas, it seemed apparent that such a magnificent institution should have left its large surviving remains like those of the contemporaneous ones at Somapura, Odantapuri and Nalanda. However, unfortunately, the location of the site remained a subject of conjecture among archaeologists and historians almost till 1960, when scholars from the Patna University like Dr. B. P. Sinha and Dr. R. C. Prasad Singh came up with confirmatory opinions.

To be continued...