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) v6.c41.s7.14

v6.c41.s7.14

The Buddhist *chaityas* are regarded by authorities as the oldest monuments in Nepal. They are not called temples, since they contained no relics, but ‘monuments intended to call forth pious thoughts.’ In general appearance they are ‘a hemispherical mound of earth, covered by a revetment of brick, surrounded by a plinth, also of brick, which serves as circular path. Four chapels are placed round the dome at the four points of the compass and joined to it, each containing the image of one of the four cardinal Buddhas—Amitābha on the west, Amogha-siddha on the north, Akshobhya on the east, and Ratnasambhava on the south (the centre being generally reserved for Vairochana). The temples of Svayambhū-nātha, a Buddhist monument, are perhaps the most elegant of all Nepal structures. It is beautifully situated on a gentle eminence about half a mile from Kathmandu. Its history is not known. But the great Bodhnath *chaitya* is ascribed to king Mānadeva of the sixth century, as also to a Tibetan Lama, named Khasa, of later date. ‘It is raised on three successive platforms or terraces, together about 45 feet high, on which stands the great dome, 90 feet in diameter, and rising another 45 feet, and over this is the pyramidal brick spire of about the same height.’¹ Another class of Buddhist *chaityas*, known as the *Koshṭhāgāra*, rise ‘from a low, flat mound, one-tenth of its diameter in height, to a great height.’ The curious thing about them is, ‘among others there is a four-faced *Liṅga* of Śiva, with a corresponding emblem with four Buddhas, and altogether such a confusion of the two religions as is scarcely conceivable.’²