life of Vedic times, when it was sacrificial ground. Here the head of the household lit the sacred fire, undisturbed by unclean intruders, and conducted the religious ceremonies at which the services of a Brahman priest are now indispensable.
None of the early Buddhist structural monasteries now exist, no doubt because they were generally built of wood and thatch; but the splendid rock-cut monastery at Nāsik, dating about the second century a.d., has exactly the same plan as the typical Indian house of to-day, when it is not planned after European models. Pl. XXXI, a, shows the verandah with its sculptured pillars of nearly the same design as those of the Kārlē chapter-house, and the entrance doorway richly carved, as is usual in all Indian homes of the better class.
Inside the courtyard stone benches running round the three sides in front of the cells take the place of the inner verandahs, which are superfluous in a rock-cut monastery. The same plan is followed at Ajantā, Ellora, and elsewhere, only in the Mahāyāna monasteries a shrine for the sacred image is added on the side facing the entrance. When the size of the courtyard, or assembly-hall, was increased, it became necessary to leave massive piers to support the rock above, and these were then as lavishly sculptured as the verandah pillars outside. The noble hall of the rock-cut monasteries at Aurangabad which is shown in Pl. XXXI, b, though it lacks the fresco paintings on the ceilings and walls which have made the Ajantā monasteries famous, in the exquisite design of its sculptured decoration it is unsurpassed by other work of the Ajantā school to which it belongs. It is dated about the seventh century a.d.
The monasteries were the universities of ancient and mediaeval India, which attracted students from all
