Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c11.15.3

c11.15.3

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.