Nalanda Mahavihara

The brick ruins of Nalanda Mahavihara — a flight of worn steps leading up into the monastery walls. Signed archival print, framed and ready to hang.

Contact me for Original Photo for Print: +91 8566015214

A flight of stone steps climbs from a lawn into the brick remains of a monastery. To either side, low brick piers with rounded caps. Behind, the walls of the vihara rise to a broken line, and beyond them a second stair disappears into what is left of an upper storey.

This is Nalanda, in Bihar — a monastic university that taught for some seven hundred years and drew students from across Asia before it was destroyed in the twelfth century. What survives is brick: courtyards, cells, stairs and walls, excavated and standing open to the sky.

The photograph is made straight on and flat, without drama. The sky is blown to plain white, the lawn is even green, and there are no people in the frame. That restraint is deliberate. Ruins are usually photographed at golden hour with long shadows to make them romantic; here the light is neutral and the building is simply allowed to be a building.

What holds it is the brick. Course upon course of it, weathered to every shade between orange and dull red, with the joints worn back and the top edges gone ragged. Against that, the steps in the centre are stone and pale, and they are the one thing in the picture still doing exactly what they were made to do.

The palette is terracotta, green and white — warm and cool in equal measure, with nothing saturated anywhere.

It suits a study, a library, a hallway, an office or a reception, and holds particular meaning for anyone connected to education, Buddhism or Bihar.

Printed on archival paper with pigment inks, signed and numbered as a limited edition. Supplied mounted and framed under glass, with a certificate of authenticity.

Specifications
Subject: Nalanda Mahavihara, Bihar
Medium: Archival pigment print
Paper: Acid-free fine art paper
Edition: Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered
Sizes: A0 (118.9x84.1cm), A1 (84.1x59.4cm), A2 (59.4x42.0cm), A3 (42.0x29.7cm), A4 (29.7x21.0cm)
Framing: Mounted and framed under glass
Included: Certificate of authenticity
Delivery: Tricity delivery included; shipped India-wide