A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.32

c21.32

The *vihāras* are monastic houses excavated near the *caityas* in secluded places where the monks found freedom to pursue their religious observances without distraction. From a small beginning in course of time they developed a full complement of rooms: a dormitory, a common room, a refectory, and so on, besides cells for individual monks. Ajanta (No. 12) is ‘a simple but typical example’ of an early single-storeyed *vihāra*. Another *vihāra* of the same type is that to the left of the *caitya* at Kondane. At Nasik this type of *vihāra* is seen ‘in its most decorative form . . . in a series of three examples’, all of the first century A.D., viz. Nahapāna (No. 8), Gautamiputra and Śriyajña, so-called from their inscriptions. ‘All have columned porticos’ but no pillars in their large central halls, from which open the individual cells generally containing stone beds.