The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c12.4

c12.4

The chapter-house was not a building taken over more or less complete, as were both the Christian church and the Muhammadan mosque, from an alien faith, nor was it "designed" in the modern architectural sense to meet the needs of Buddhist ritual. The elements of its structure grew together by a natural creative process. The chaitya itself, often enclosed in a simple circular shrine covered by a dome, as in Pl. IX, A, was both the object of adoration and the pivot of the design. The little Buddhist congregation of a Bengali village, when they met at the holy spot to listen to the dialogues of the Master and to walk round the chaitya-shrine, "turning the wheel of the Law," according to the ancient Vedic rite, needed some shelter. So they put over the shrine a simple bambu pavilion with a mat roof, like the covering of a Bengali boat-cabin (*chhai*) (Pl. II, fig. E), or bullock-cart; or sometimes a more substantial building of clay or brick, roofed like one of their own cottages. The plan of such a building (fig. 27) was that of a long room, generally semicircular or apsidal at the end occupied by the chaitya, with entrances at the opposite one. This allowed space for the congregation to sit in front of the chaitya shrine when listening to recitations of the word of the Law, and to walk in procession round it.