A team of experts from the National Remote Sensing Agency, headed by Venugopal Rao, has started the ground-penetrating radar survey of Nalanda University in Bihar to inspect hitherto unexplored ancient buried structures in the area. A team from the Archeological Survey of India is also helping the Hyderabad based NRSA team.
The ancient university of Nalanda, founded in the 5th century AD, used to attract students from across the world.
Chinese Scholar Huang Tsang, who visited Nalanda University in the 7th century AD, described the excellence of Nalanda's education system and purity of its monastic life, in detail in his writings. He had stated that the university was spread over a 16 km area. However, hardly 1.6 sq km has been excavated so far.
A senior ASI official, who is accompanying the NRSA team in Nalanda for the GPR survey, told rediff.com that the GPR survey will examine the location of two mounds --Garhpar and Rukministhan -- located in the vicinity of Nalanda.
"The team will carry out the GPR survey from December 19 to 22," said the official.The ASI officials said that the main purpose of the GPR survey was to locate ancient buried structures, if any, in Nalanda.
Archaeologists have been in a dilemma for years about whether to start the excavation near Nalanda University due to lack of adequate scientific detail.
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