Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.15753

c10.15753

**VIHARA, WIHARE**, &c., s. In Ceylon a Buddhist temple. Skt. *vihāra*, a Buddhist convent, originally the hall where the monks met, and thence extended to the buildings generally of such an institution, and to the shrine which was attached to them, much as minster has come from *monasterium*. Though there are now no Buddhist *vihāras* in India Proper, the former wide diffusion of such establishments has left its trace in the names of many noted places: *e.g.* Bihār, and the great province which takes its name; Kuch Behār; the *Vihār* water-works at Bombay; and most probably the City of *Bokhārā* itself. [Numerous ruins of such buildings have been unearthed in N. India, as, for instance, that at Sarnāth near Benares, of which an account is given by Gen. Cunningham (*Arch. Rep.* i. 121). An early use of the word (probably in the sense of a monastery) is found in the Mathura Jain inscription of the 2nd century, A.D. in the reign of Huvishka (*ibid.* iii. 33).]