Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c16.18

c16.18

Where the Indian builders were allowed free scope to work out large schemes of brick architecture, was in the production of the immense monastic establishments which, in the first millennium gradually rose upon a number of sites consecrated to the Buddha in the holy land of Bihar and the adjoining country. Chief among these were certain places of pilgrimage specially sanctified because they were intimately connected with the life of the Buddha himself, such as Kapilavastu, the place of the Nativity, and also of the "Great Renunciation", Budh Gaya, the scene of the "Enlightenment", Sarnath, where in the Deer Park (*Isipatana*) he "set in motion the wheel of the Law", and Kusinagara (Kasia) where he entered Nirvana. To these may be added the University of Nalanda, the Jetavana monastery at Saheth (Sravasti), and an important shrine and hermitage at Paharpur in the Rajshahi district of Bengal, besides many other Buddhist resorts of a similarly hallowed character. On all the religious centres there grew up in the course of time, large aggregations of buildings, such as stupas, shrines, temples, colleges, and monasteries grouped together within a spacious enclosure, and all constructed mainly of brick Of these vast sanctuaries, teeming with religious life and supporting thousands of monks, so large that they have been likened to university towns, which existed in such profusion in the Gangetic plain from the fifth to the twelfth centuries, nothing remains to mark each site but a shapeless conglomeration of ruins, save the great temple at Budh Gaya, now so restored that much of its original appearance is lost. But from a variety of sources such as excavation, literary records, and other data, some idea of their architectural style may be obtained