” A great monastic establishment flourished at Sarnath at the time of Hsuan-tsang’s visit in c. AD 637…It was described by Hsuan-tsang, ‘in eight divisions all enclosed within one wall’, that is, a monastery of the Mahavihara type – ,’with tiers of balconies and rows of, halls, extremely artistic, inhabited by 1,500 monks…Within the great enclosing wall was a temple above 200 feet high, surmounted by an embossed gilt amra (mango fruit); the base and the steps were of stone; in the brick portion above were more than 100 rows of niches each containing a gilt image of the Buddha; inside the temple was a bell-metal image of the Buddha in the attitude of preaching, as large as life…”

(Sukumar Dutt, Buddhist Monks & Monasteries of India: Their History & Their Contribution to Indian Culture, 1962)

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