Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c16.29

c16.29

That these Buddhist sanctuaries were of an immense size is shown by the extent of their ruins, as is instanced by the wall surrounding the mound at Kasia, which forms a rhomboid 1,250 feet side and encloses an area of thirty-six acres while the site of Nalanda measures 1,600 feet long and is some 800 feet wide. Within these enclosures were three main essentials—a stupa or group of stupas, a temple and shrine combined, and hostels for the numerous orders of monks. Each sanctuary also included some sacred object special to itself, and generally of a spectacular nature in order to attract pilgrims, the colossal statue of the Dying Buddha at Kasia being a case in point. In every instance this central feature, together with the stupa and other religious monuments, occupied one portion of the enclosed area, where they were generally arranged in juxtaposition, either in axial relation to each other or side by side. Separated from this consecrated portion by a wall was the monastic enclosure, which itself was divided into an inner and outer ward having communicating entrances or a central avenue of approach as at Sarnath and Nalanda, the whole leading up to the main shrine Out of the immense mound which, for a thousand years has been the only visible record of Nalanda's greatness, several corner towers have been excavated and are a token of the style as a whole They depict a late flowering of the Buddhist architecture of India, and are composed of a series of well-proportioned stories and tiers divided by prominent cornices of the rock-cut type, decorated with chaitya-arched niches containing figures. (Plate CXXXII). The existing remains show that most of these buildings were of a very substantial kind usually standing on massive plinths