Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c11.16

c11.16

The other building required in connection with the Buddhist shrine was a monastery or *vihara*. As India was the birthplace of monasticism the origin of this structure is possibly older even than that of the stupa, and certainly of the chaitya-hall. *Cramanas* or forest-dwellers practised asceticism from very remote times, living in leafy huts or natural caves and tending the sacred fires, as may be seen in several scenes of the bas-reliefs (Plate XVIII Figs 1 and 7). It was probably from among these hermits that the emperor Asoka recruited his first order of monks, forming them into an organised society to ensure the church he had founded being properly maintained and its constitution preserved. And just as these wandering ascetics were resolved into groups as the first step towards the establishment of a monastic system, so their huts were grouped around an open space to make the first monasteries, as the subject of the Jetavana scene on the Barhut railing testifies. From some such elementary beginning was evolved the conventional arrangement of a hostel consisting of a series of cells enclosing three sides of a square courtyard, the remaining side being left open for the entrance. Places of residence in the [Figure: EARLY TYPES OF TEMPLES. ① TEMPLE OF TRI-VIKRAMA, AT TER. ② TEMPLE NO 1, TAXILA [RESTORED] ③ TEMPLE OF VAITAL DEUL, BHUBANESWAR ④ TEMPLE NO 40, SANCHI [RESTORED]]