Nagarjunakonda

Nagarjunakonda is a historical Buddhist town, now an island located near Nagarjuna Sagar in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, India. It is 160 km west side of another important historic site Amaravathi. It is one of India's richest Buddhist sites, known in the ancient times as Sri Parvata. It now lies almost entirely under the Nagarjunasagar Dam. It is named after Nagarjuna, a southern Indian master of Mahayana Buddhism who lived in the 2nd century AD, who is believed to have been responsible for the Buddhist activity in the area. The site was once the location of many Buddhist universities and monasteries, attracting students from as far as China, Gandhara, Bengal and Sri Lanka. The Buddhist archaeological sites there were submerged, and had to later be dug up and transferred to higher land on the hill, which had become an island.HistoryThe settlement of Nagarjunakonda was the capital of the Ikshvaku dynasty, the successors of the Satavahanas in the eastern Deccan. It is believed that Sadvaha authorised the first monastic construction there during his reign.