Mahavihara

According to Tibetan sources, five great mahaviharas stood out during the Pāla period: Vikramashila, the premier university of the era; Nalanda, past its prime but still illustrious, Somapura, Odantapurā, and Jaggadala.

[2] The famous Nalanda Mahavihara was founded a few centuries earlier; Xuanzang speaks about its magnificence and grandeur.

Odantpuri was situated at a mountain called Hiranya Prabhat Parvat and the bank of the river Panchanan.

Jagaddala Mahavihara was a Buddhist monastery and seat of learning in Varendra, a geographical unit in present north Bengal.

[4] It was founded by the later kings of the Pāla dynasty, probably Ramapala (c. 1077 – c. 1120), most likely at a site near the present village of Jagdal in Dhamoirhat Upazila in the north-west Bangladesh on the border with India, near Paharapur.

[6] Located in Comilla, Bangladesh, it was established by King Bhava Deva in the Lalmai Hills Ridge.

The Cūlavamsa[7] written during the European Middle Ages by a monk called Dhamma-kitti, says that king Mahāsena (277-304 AD) had the Mahavihara destroyed by devotees of the Abhayagiri vihara.

The traditional Theravadin account provided by the Mahavamsa stands in contrast to the writings of the Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian (Ch.