Geography of Early Buddhism c12.83

c12.83

That the cetiyas also referred to assembly halls as distinguished from stūpas and vihāras is illustrated by extant rock-cut Buddhist assembly-halls at Nāsik, Bhājā, Karle and other places. These assembly-halls are still known as Caityas or Cetiyas. These halls are, in fact, rock-cut caves of an apsidal form with a small dagoba or stūpa at the end of the apse, in front of which there was the pillared hall for the assembly of worshippers. The vihāras which were either rock-cut or structural were rather of the nature of dwelling halls whereas the stūpas were of the nature of a hemispherical, and later on, cylindrical dome.