While some sources note that the Mahavihara continued to function in a makeshift fashion for a while longer, it was eventually abandoned and forgotten until the 19th century when the site was surveyed and preliminary excavations were conducted by the Archaeological Survey of India.
Iako neki izvori navode da je Mahavihara nastavila s radom na improvizirani način još neko vrijeme, s vremenom je napuštena i zaboravljena sve do 19. stoljeća kada je lokalitet ispitan preliminarnim iskopavanjima koje je proveo Arheološki institut Indije.