Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c24.20

c24.20

It is to be noted that the impulse to the construction of Vihāras for monks came from the words of the Buddha himself, such as the following: "To give *Vihāras* to the Saṁgha where, in safety and in peace, to meditate and think at ease, the Buddha calls the best of gifts. Let then the able man, regarding his own weal, have pleasant monasteries built and lodge their learned men" [*Chullavagga*, vi, 1, 5]. Incidentally we may again note that this growth of collective life and organization in education is a fundamental point of distinction between the Buddhist and the Brahmanical system, which depended more upon the solitude of hermitages in the woods as an aid to spiritual life than the social atmosphere of a Saṁgha humming with the activities of several thousands of monks in residence in the neighbourhood of busy haunts of men where they could go for begging.