Telhara monastery

Telhara (formerly known as Telāḍhaka) was a Buddhist monastic establishment in Nalanda district of Bihar, India dating back to the 1st-century CE and active till at least the 12th-century CE.

It is notable as it has been mentioned in the travelogues of Chinese monks including Xuanzang.

History

It has been mentioned as Teladhaka in the writings of the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang, who visited the place in the 7th century CE. It is mentioned in an inscription found at Nālandā which mentions a temple restored by a man named Bālāditya, a Jyāvisa of Telāḍhaka who had emigrated from Kauśāmbī, in the eleventh year of Mahipala Deva. Xuanzang describes the monastery as belonging to followers of the Mahayana and having around one thousand monks under a chief monk named Prajnābhadra who was well-renowned. Another Tang-era Chinese traveller, Yijing also visited Telhara and mentioned it being two yojana away from Nalanda and also mentioned the name of a scholar named Jñānacandra who resided there.

A recently discovered inscription stone inscription confirms that the Pithipatis of Magadha donated land to the monastic community of Telhara.

It has also been mentioned in the Ain-i-Akbari as Tiladah, and is shown as one of the 46 mahals (administrative units) of the Bihar sarkar. Telhara was shown as a pargana in the maps prepared by the East India Company administration during 1842–45.

The ruins of Telhara were mentioned in an 1872 letter by A. M. Broadley, the then Magistrate of Nalanda. Broadley noted that a large number of stone and metal images were often found during the digging of graves at the top of one of the mounds. Metal images found were melted down.