Buddhist Roots of Nagarjunakonda

Nagarjunakonda means Nagarjuna Hill in Telugu, the language used in much of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located in present day Guntur district as an island, after it was indundated in 1960, to make way for an irrigation project of modern India, Nagarjuna Sagar Dam.
It is so named after a southern Indian philosopher Nagarjuna, of 2nd century AD, who is credited with the spread of Mahayana Buddhism in south India as well as up north to Tibet and onwards.
It was once an important Buddhist learning and education site, that attracted Buddhist scholars from Sri Lanka, Burma, China, Bengal and Gandhara for higher studies in Buddhist disciplines and Buddhist thought.
Before its flooding by Andhra government in 1960, about 100 specialist archaeologists were sent in for excavations alongwith 1000 labour to excavate whatever remnants and archeological evidence they could find for future generations of Buddhist students and studies.
Today it is an example of the monumental ignorance of Indian political and educational elite, and the Brahminical dominated society, that is unaware of the Buddhist past and its contributions to Indian civilization and Indian identity.