India, May 3 -- 1Why did you choose to write a book on the Nalanda Mahavihara? I was born and raised in the Nalanda district of Bihar, yet much about Nalanda was a mystery to me. I wanted to understand why Nalanda became such a celebrated Buddhist monastery- university, what was taught there, who taught there and what contributions it made. I wanted to know whether it was destroyed suddenly or if the decline occurred over a period of time. These questions came to my mind whenever I visited the ruins of the Nalanda Mahavihara. I did not find answers to these questions easily in one source. To satisfy my curiosity, I began my own research. I found some startling facts that I was not aware of. Therefore, I decided to write a book on Nalanda that could provide comprehensive information addressing certain questions. 2What was it like to visit the ruins while conducting this research? I have been visiting the ruins of the Nalanda Mahavihara since childhood and always felt a sense of overarching calm and tranquillity in its precincts. However, when I visited the ruins while conducting research for this book, I saw it afresh. Images of venerated teachers, monks and patrons who contributed to making Nalanda a celebrated university filled my mind. I felt that the centuries gone by came alive all at once. I could hear the sound and murmur of life coming out of Nalanda's courtyards, temples and monasteries. 3According to the book, the Nalanda Mahavihara developed from a stupa that emperor Ashoka built in memory of Gautama Buddha's disciple Sariputra, who attained nirvana there. Was it both a centre of pilgrimage and a university? The stupa of Sariputra is the nucleus around which the Nalanda Mahavihara developed. Eleven viharas and three chaityas flank the eastern and western sides of the principal south-north axis, emanating from the sacred centre of the great stupa of Sariputra. The initial building phase from the 3rd century BCE to 4th century CE shows a clustered layout of the viharas around the Sariputra stupa, while from the 4th century onwards, the layout becomes linear, marking a physical segregation of sacred and secular functions. 4It nurtured Buddhist scholars from the 4th to 14th centuries CE. What made it so sought-after? As per Tibetan accounts, Nalanda possessed a well-equipped library, which was known as the Dharmaganja, or Mountain of Truth. Its rich collection included rare sacred texts such as the Prajnaparamita-sutra and books on Tantra. Indian and foreign monks visited, to study and copy valuable Buddhist manuscripts. Over centuries, the Nalanda Mahavihara became a celebrated seat of learning, because of its philosophical importance, its proximity to power and its location in the fertile Gangetic plain....