Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c24.26

c24.26

**Ārāma.** Some of the larger Vihāras were set in the midst of a large compound with extensive grounds technically called the Ārāma or park. We have already seen that the grounds were sown with crops [*Mahāv.*, vi, 39], under a system by which the harvest was divided equally between the Saṁgha and the agriculturists to whom the cultivation would be committed. We also read of the plantations of the Ārāmas being protected against the inroads of “goats and cattle” by means of fencing of bamboo, or thorn, or of ditches, and of gateways, “with gates made of stakes interlaced with thorny brakes, with fences (across the gateway) made of the akka plant, with ornamental screen-work over the gateway ('of which such excellent examples in stone have been found at the Sānchi and Bharhut Topes'), and with bars" [*Chullav.*, vi, 3, 10].