Manasara Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Manasara-Shilpashastra; III. Manasara on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Manasara: Translation; V. Architecture of Manasara: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v1.c6.s13.110

v1.c6.s13.110

(12) “The word chaitya is derived from the root ‘chin chayane,’ to collect, and the commentary on Amara, called the Gurubālaprabodhikā, says that it denotes a building, because it is the result of the collection or puttiug together of stones (chīyate pāshāṇādinā chaityam). But it will be seen that in some of the above quotations the word is used in close connection with yūpa, the sacrificial post. The ceremony performed at the end of the great sacrifices is called chayana, i.e., the collection of the sacred ashes and other relics and the grouping them into the form of a tortoise, or of the bird Garutmat as in the sacrifice called Garuḍachayana; chita being the sacred things thus collected, it appears that the building constructed to preserve them for the purpose of worship was called chaitiya or chaitya.”