The Newsletter 69 Autumn 2014

A satellite's view of Nalanda's past

M.B. Rajani

Nalanda is believed to have been the world’s oldest residential monastic university, and a continually active Buddhist centre of learning from the 5th to the 12th centuries AD. This report describes how modern satellite technology can augment traditional archaeological efforts to shed light on Nalanda’s past. It is an outcome of a multidisciplinary research project entitled A study of Nalanda using GIS and remote-sensing, conducted by the author under a Fellowship awarded by Nalanda University in 2013-2014. A detailed essay is under revision and review for Archives of Asian Art.