Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c14.18

c14.18

By means of a passage and flights of steps on account of the difference in levels, the court of the stupas was connected with the monastery (*b*) as a church with its abbey. The passage traversed the open space (*c*) reserved for stupas and other symbols contributed to the shrine as acts of merit, while the front walls of the monastery facing this enclosure, were also made into a range of cells to contain votive offerings of structural form or imagery. The monastery proper or sanghrama for the accommodation of the monks was built on a plan common to all such Buddhist structures, and consisted of ranges of cells around a central courtyard. These rooms were simple and unadorned, but, on the walls between each chamber, and protected by a verandah, it became the custom to place large figure groups, often of stucco and vividly coloured, which caused these usually sombre retreats to become animated picture-galleries of sacred subjects.