The site was once the location of a large Buddhist monastic university complex, attracting students from as far as China, Gandhara, Bengal and Sri Lanka.

[6] The modern name is after Nagarjuna, a southern Indian master of Mahayana Buddhism who lived in the 2nd century, who was once believed, probably wrongly, to have been responsible for the development of the site.

[7] An inscription of Gautamiputra Vijaya Satakarni, dated to his 6th regnal year, has also been discovered at the site, and proves that Buddhism had spread in the region by this time.

[8] The site rose to prominence after the decline of the Satavahanas, in the first quarter of the 3rd century, when the Ikshvaku king Vashishthiputra Chamamula established his capital Vijayapuri here.

An inscription dated to the 30th regnal year of the Abhira king Vashishthi-putra Vasusena has also been discovered at the ruined Ashtab-huja-svamin temple.

[11] The last extant Ikshavaku inscription is dated to the 11th year (c. 309 CE) of Rudra-purusha: the subsequent fate of the dynasty is not known, but it is possible that the Pallavas conquered their territory by the 4th century.

[8] In 1926, a local schoolteacher, Suraparaju Venkataramaih, saw an ancient pillar at the site, and reported his discovery to the Madras Presidency government.

In 1954, when the construction of the proposed Nagarjuna Sagar Dam threatened the site with submergence, a large-scale excavation led by R Subrahmanyam was started to salvage the archaeological material.

[14] An archaeological catastrophe struck in 1960, when an irrigation dam was constructed across the nearby Krishna River, submerging the original site under the waters of a reservoir.

Archaeological inscriptions at the site show that the Andhra Ikshvaku kings Virapurusadatta, Ehuvula and family members patronized Buddhism.

Inscriptions showed that there were monasteries belonging to the Bahuśrutīya and Aparamahavinaseliya sub-schools of the Mahāsāṃghika, the Mahisasaka, and the Mahaviharavasin, from Sri Lanka.

There were other monasteries for Buddhist scholars originating from the Tamil kingdoms, Orissa, Kalinga, Gandhara, Bengal, Ceylon (the Culadhammagiri) and China.

The medhi stood 1.5 m and the ayaka-platforms were rectangular offsets measuring 6.7 by 1.5 m.[18] The style of the reliefs recovered is "all but indistinguishable" from those of the final phase of the Amaravati Stupa not very far away, from the second quarter of the third century, slightly earlier than Nagarjunakonda.

Though "lively and interesting", they show "a great decline since the mature phase at Amaravarti", with less complex groupings, various mannerisms in the figures, and a flatness to the surfaces.

[26] An inscription in a monastery (Site No.38) describes its residents as acaryas and theriyas of the Vibhajyavada school, "who had gladdened the heart of the people of Kasmira, Gamdhara, Yavana, Vanavasa[27] and Tambapamnidipa".

[29] The spread of the usage of Sanskrit inscriptions to the south can probably be attributed to the influence of the Western Satraps who promoted the usage of Sanskrit in epigraphy, and who were in close relation with southern Indian rulers: according to Salomon "a Nagarjunakonda memorial pillar inscription of the time of King Rudrapurusadatta attests to a marital alliance between the Western Ksatrapas and the Iksvaku rulers of Nagarjunakonda".

[33][34][35] The modern name of the site originates from its presumptive association with the Buddhist scholar Nagarjuna (konda is the Telugu word for "hill").

[36] Fa-Hien, in his travelogue A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms, mentions a five storey monastery on top of the hill, dedicated to Kassapa Buddha.

The museum houses a collection of relics of Buddhist culture and art These include a small tooth and an ear-ring believed to be that of Gautama Buddha.

The nearby Srisailam wildlife sanctuary and the Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve are refuge for diverse reptiles, birds and animals.

Srisailam, which sits on the shore of Krishna in the Nallamala Hills is a site of immense historical and religious significance, including a Shiva temple that is one of the 12 sacred Jyotirlingas.