Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/204

1 7 o BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. CHAPTER VI. VIHARAS, OR MONASTERIES. CONTENTS. Structural Viharas Bengal Caves Western Vihara Caves Nasik, Ajanta, Bagh, Dhamnar and Kholvi, Elura, Aurangabad and Kuda Viharas. STRUCTURAL VIHARAS. A VlHARA, 1 properly speaking is a residence or dwelling, whether for a monk or an image ; and a group of apartments for a community of monks is, strictly speaking a Sangharama or monastery. The word Vihara, however, like Dagaba, came from Ceylon, where it was used to designate not only a cell but also any monastic establishment, 2 and this extended application has come to be generally understood by us ; and with this explanation we employ it. We are almost more dependent on rock-cut examples for our knowledge of the Viharas or monasteries of the Buddhists than we are for that of their Chaityas or churches ; a circum- stance more to be regretted in this instance than in the other. In a chaitya hall the interior is naturally the principal object, and where the art of the architect would be principally lavished. Next would come the facade. The sides and apse are com- paratively insignificant and incapable of ornament. The fagades and the interior can be as well expressed in the rock as when 1 As immediately to be explained, " Viharas "is applied only to monasteries, the abodes of monks or hermits. It was not, however, used in former times in that restricted sense only. Hiuen Tsiang calls the Great Tower at Bodh- Gaya a vihara, and describes similar towers at Nalanda, 200 and 300 ft. high, as viharas. The ' Mahawansa ' also applies the term indiscriminately to temples of a certain class, and to resi- dences. The name was used to dis- tinguish them from stupas or towers, which were relic shrines, or erected as memorials of persons or events, and never were residences or simulated to be such, or contained images, till the last gasp of the style as at Kholvi. Strictly speak- ing, the monasteries ought to be called Sangharamas, but, to avoid multiplica- tion of terms, vihara is used in this work as the synonym of monastery. 2 So also in Nepal it is applied to monasteries. Oldfield's 'Sketches from Nepal,' vol. ii. pp. 275ff.