Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c11.15

Language: English

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Even before these additions were made to the Sanchi stupa a number of buildings were erected in its vicinity to serve the needs of worshippers, or for the use of those whose duties were connected with the shrine. Two types of structure came early into evidence, one being a temple for the performance of the ritual, and the other a monastery for the residence of the priests The temple, or chaitya hall arose out of the particular demands of the Buddhist religion. With the appearance of a material cult-object in the form of the stupa (chaitya), some building for the accommodation of facsimiles of this divine symbol, together with shelter for the convenience of those who came to pay their devotions to it, became necessary. Hitherto the religious rites of the people had been conducted in the open air under the shadow of the trees in the sacred groves, so that a structural house of prayer had not been required. No tradition for a temple being in existence, something suitable had to be created *ab initio* The general shape of the stupa, and the ritual of circumambulation naturally suggested a building a portion of which should be circular in plan with a domical roof. Some such structure had long been the abode of hermits and other holy persons, and their beehive huts with conical roofs and thatch, sanctified by usage, could be readily adapted to contain the stupa.

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That a rudimentary shelter of this kind was the beginning of the chaitya hall is proved by the character of the rock-cut chambers of the Asokan period in the Barabar hills. The inner cells of both the Lomas Rishi and Sudama examples were seemingly prepared for the reception of stupas, and are lithic copies of circular huts having thatched roofs with heavy over-hanging eaves, even the scantlings of the walls being faithfully reproduced. (Plate IX). Two other instances of this primitive origin preserved in widely separated parts of the country may be seen, one in a rock-cut chamber at Guntapalle in the Kistna district of the Madras Presidency, and another similarly rock-cut at Kondivte near Bombay. The former, which on stylistic grounds can only be a little later than those in the Barabar hills, is a copy of a circular hut with its conical thatched roof resting on a framework of wood like an inverted basket, and the stupa it accommodates is still *in situ* (Plate VIII Fig 7). The example at Kondivte is of an early manner, although it is itself later, and is evidently a survival of an old type which also shows a stupa within a circular cell (Plate VIII Fig. 4). To the inner cells an ante-chamber was attached, those in the Barabar hills being barrel-vaulted, the two compartments communicating by a doorway. Structural examples of this rudimentary arrangement appear to have been built at Taxila about the first century B.C.

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of which the foundations of the apsidal temple at Sirkap are an illustration (Plate XVI Fig. 2). It was not long, however, before the wall separating the cellar, from the ante-chamber was found superfluous, and when it was removed the basilica-shaped Buddhist chaitya hall came into being. The earliest temple of this shape is No. 40 at Sanchi, dating from Mauryan times or a little later. There are also several buildings of much the same kind depicted on the bas-reliefs, and from the two sources a reconstruction has been attempted in Plate XVI Fig. 4. Exteriorly the temple at Sanchi was rectangular in plan, but one end of the interior was apsidal. The unusually high plinth was reminiscent of an expedient found necessary on the low ground of the plains to raise buildings above flood level, while the side entrances were copied from the rock-cut chapels which had their openings in this position owing to the shallow contour of the rock in which they were quarried, a practice soon to be discarded. A singular feature in the temple was that it contained a row of pillars aligned down the centre of the nave, an arrangement which has also been found in the early temples of the Greeks. The Sanchi temple appears to have been built mainly of wood, the pillars and railings being of this material, and the roof also was of timber covered with tiles Owing to the impermanent nature of their construction no chaitya-halls of such an early type have survived.