History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.33

v1.c19.33

Buddhism does not seem to have ever gained such a footing among the Dravidian races generally as it did in northern and western India; yet, in the 7th century, when Hiuen Tsiang visited Kânchîpuram, most probably when Narasimhavarman I. was the Pallava sovereign, he reckoned "some hundred of sanghârâmas with ten thousand priests" in the Drâvida country, all belonging to the Sthavira school of the Mahâyâna, with eighty Hindû temples and many Jaina heretics.¹ In Malakûta or the Pândya country he reports from hearsay that the monasteries were mostly ruinous, whilst Jains were numerous; and for the Chola province, which he probably passed through, he makes a like statement. Like their temples at Negapattarn, Buddhist monasteries would mostly be of brick, and when the sect disappeared, whether from persecution—as tradition asserts—or through absorption into Vaishnava or other sects, their buildings would be pulled down or altered for other purposes.