What ancient spell does Nalanda still cast, centuries after it fell to ruin?

When the Government of India decided to revive Nalanda in 2010 with an international university, Dr Kavita A. Sharma was compelled to find out why. What she discovered was a world once alive with scholar-monks, royal patronage, and cross-cultural pilgrimages. This slim but powerful book is her personal journey into the heart of Nalanda’s mystique—where echoes of Chinese monks like Xuanzang and I-Ching still seem to whisper through the ruins, and the ghosts of Indian scholars who once braved the perilous route to China are aching to be remembered.

Part travelogue, part historical reflection, Echoes of Nalanda captures a sacred geography where Buddha and Mahavira once walked, and where seekers still come hoping to touch the silence of wisdom. From trudging the dusty road from Patna to wandering the hallowed grounds of Rajgir with her granddaughter Maya, Sharma paints a moving portrait of a place that once shaped the spiritual and intellectual DNA of Asia— and perhaps still can do that.

A compelling blend of memory, history and gentle scholarship, this is a tribute to an immortal idea: that learning is the true pilgrimage.