Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c39.16

c39.16

The earliest monuments produced in this classical mode were Buddhist, the two principal sites being at Parihaspura, fourteen miles north-west of Srinagar, and at Puranadhishthana, now the modern village of Pandrethan Both these were the centres of important monastic communities, as their extensive remains plainly testify, but of the great buildings in which the priestly orders lived and worshipped, only the bases and foundations, exposed by excavation, have been preserved. The largest amount of material is provided by the ruins of Parihasapura, for on this site, in close proximity to one another, are substantial evidences of what at one time were three large and imposing monuments—a stupa, a monastery, and a temple or chaitya hall, with enough of their architectural construction and sculptured embellishment left to show the character of their style.