Somapura Mahavira, also known as the Great Monastery, symbolizes the rise of Mahayana Buddhism in Bengal from the 7th century and was a major intellectual center until the 12th century. This unique monastery-city, with its harmonious architecture and intricate carvings, significantly influenced Buddhist architecture in regions as far as Cambodia. During the Pāla period, several prominent monasteries, including Somapura Mahavihara, Vikramashila, Nalanda, Odantapurā, and Jaggadala, formed a network of Buddhist learning institutions in ancient India. These universities were interconnected and state-supervised, allowing scholars like Atisa to travel between them. Somapura Mahavihara was the largest university of its time, and it played a pivotal role in the development of early Bengali language in the 8th century.