Gaurav Shukla, an animation and visual art student who assisted Upadhyaya in the ancient varsity’s 3-D modelling, said technology could open a new vista with its near-perfect visualisation of historical artefacts. ‘‘Computer-generated 3-D models makes possible virtual reconstruction of architectural and structural detail of any historical monument,’’ Shukla said, ‘‘though it is an extremely challenging task to do it practically.’’

Shukla said the IIT-Kanpur group is trying to get a government authority or some agency involved in history to promote the fact that Nalanda University could be revived. ‘‘If the cause is taken up by some responsible agency, Nalanda can be reconstructed with the help of animation and 3-D imaging developed by us.’’

According to them, the faculty and students are in contact with senior archaeologist Vidula Jaiswal of IT-BHU, R Pant of Nav Nalanda Maha Vihar and other prominent personalities to take the project further.