Nalanda Sarai Mound & Surajpur Baragaon
Nalanda, Bihar, India
Nearby attractions
Nalanda Archaeological Museum & Xuanzang Memorial
Nalanda, Bihar
The museum of Nalanda's finds — bronze and stucco Buddhas, seals and manuscripts — beside the memorial hall to the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang who studied here.
Nalanda University Ruins
Nalanda, Bihar
The red-brick bones of the ancient world's greatest university — monasteries, stupas and lecture halls where 10,000 monks from across Asia once studied logic, medicine and the stars, until the libraries burned in 1193. A UNESCO site radiating quiet grandeur.
Nalanda Multimedia Museum & Glory of Nalanda
Nalanda, Bihar
A 3-D animation museum bringing the rise and fall of the great university to life, beside the Hiuen Tsang memorial and Nalanda's lotus gardens.
Kundalpur (Mahavira's Birthplace)
Nalanda, Bihar
A Digambar Jain pilgrimage village believed to be the birthplace of Lord Mahavira — temples, a great tank and a serene Jain heritage near Nalanda.
Nava Nalanda Mahavihara & Silao (Khaja)
Nalanda, Bihar
The modern Pali-Buddhist deemed university reviving Nalanda's learning, and nearby Silao — famed across Bihar for its flaky, layered khaja sweet.
Pawapuri (Jalmandir Jain Temple)
Pawapuri, Bihar
The white-marble temple afloat in a lotus lake where Lord Mahavira attained nirvana and was cremated — Jainism's supreme pilgrimage in Bihar.
Biharsharif (Sufi Dargah & Bari Dargah)
Biharsharif, Bihar
The Sufi heart of old Bihar — the hilltop Bari Dargah of Makhdum Shah Sharfuddin, a great Urs fair and the shrines that gave 'Bihar' (vihara) its name.
Ghosrawan & Giryek (Buddhist Sites)
Nalanda, Bihar
Off-map Buddhist relics of the Nalanda-Rajgir belt — Ghosrawan's Pala Buddha images and the Giryek hill stupa ('Jarasandha ki Baithak') over the Panchane river.
Rajgir (Ancient Rajagriha)
Rajgir, Bihar
The first Magadhan capital in a bowl of five hills — cyclopean walls, the Buddha's Griddhakuta peak, hot springs, Jain temples and Jarasandha's akhara of legend.
Rajgir Hot Springs (Brahmakund)
Rajgir, Bihar
Sacred sulphur springs bubbling from Vaibhava hill into a warren of kunds and temples — a bathing pilgrimage since the Buddha's day.
Son Bhandar Caves, Rajgir
Rajgir, Bihar
Rock-cut Jain caves at Vaibhava hill's foot — the legendary 'treasury of gold' behind an undeciphered inscription, with polished chambers and a Shankha script.
Cyclopean Wall & Bimbisara's Jail, Rajgir
Rajgir, Bihar
The 40-km ring of undressed stone that walled ancient Rajagriha, and the stone-walled enclosure where King Ajatashatru is said to have imprisoned his father Bimbisara.