Nālandā Monastery ［那爛陀寺］ (;  Naranda-ji): Also, Nālanda Monastery. A Buddhist monastery that was located at the site of present-day Bargaon in Bihar, northeastern India. It prospered as a center of Buddhist learning from the fifth through the twelfth century. Founded in the fifth century by Kumāragupta (also known as Shakrāditya), king of the Gupta dynasty, the monastery was enlarged by the kings of the late Gupta period. Nālandā Monastery was in reality a Buddhist university, where many learned monks came to further their study of Buddhism. Hsüan-tsang and I-ching, Chinese priests who traveled to India in the seventh century, wrote in their records of the imposing structure and prosperity of this monastery. Many outstanding Mahayana Buddhist scholars, such as Dharmapāla and Shīlabhadra, studied there.