Features are as follows:
- Sculptures have an ordered appearance with little effect of crowding.
- They are depicted in three-dimensional forms.
- Delicate ornamentations.
- Back slabs of the sculptures are detailed.
- Nalanda bronzes: dating from 7th and 8th centuries to the 12th century; outnumber the metal images from entire eastern India.
- Initially depict Mahayana Buddhist deities like standing Buddhas, bodhisattvas like Manjusri Kumara, Naga-Nagarjuna and Avalokiteshvara seated on a lotus.
- In the late 11th and 12th centuries, Nalanda became an important tantric centre. Then, Vajrayana deities dominated such Vajrasharada (a form of Saraswati), Avalokiteshvara, Khasarpana, etc.
- Many Brahmanical images have also been found at Nalanda. Many such images are still worshipped at nearby villages.