A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c8.24

c8.24

Although monastic institutions were not peculiar to Buddhism, having been adopted earlier by both Jains and Brahmanical Hindus, the Buddhist Order (*sangha*), including both monks and nuns, attained (as pointed out in the Introduction) a height of power to which the monastic communities of the other religions never aspired; and, in consequence, the buildings dedicated to the use of the Order were frequently designed on a scale of the utmost magnificence. The essential feature in a monastery is the provision of residential cells, arranged usually round a courtyard or quadrangle. When such a quadrangle became multiple, with the addition of chapels, *stūpas*, refectories, halls, churches, storehouses, and other buildings, the greater monasteries covered an enormous area, and offered to the architect, sculptor, and painter endless opportunities for the display of art in every form. Although no very early monastery has survived in a condition at all complete, the ground-plans of many such establishments have been clearly traced, and near Peshāwar considerable remains of superstructures crowded with statuary have been disclosed. Recorded descriptions and extant remains amply attest the splendour of the more considerable monasteries, each of which was a centre of secular as well as of religious education, and also a school of art in which men were trained in all the crafts needed for the adornment of the holy places.