Origin and Development of Chaitya, Viharas and Rock Cut Caves

 Origin and Development of Chaitya, Viharas and Rock Cut Caves

Chaitya: - The architecture of Chaitya is analogue to that of stūpa. It is a sacred architecture whereas stūpa is a secular one.  It is pertinent to note that the Chaitya is a pre-Buddhist tradition. It was prevalent in large numbers before the advent of Buddhism. A Chaitya is a Buddhist shrine or prayer hall with a stūpa at one end. In modern texts on Indian architecture, the term chaitya-griha is often used to denote an assembly or prayer hall that houses a stūpa. It was the opinion that the Chaitya must be built under a shadow or canopy. At the beginning of Chaitya architecture, it was built under a tree and thought that tree was serving as a canopy. It was technically called Rukhamula Chaitya.  With the passage of time, the beautiful Chaitya architecture sprang into existence mentioned made of the magnificent and imbalanced Chaitya of Karle, Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda, Bhaja and so on.

Monasteries: - Monastery architecture is one of the essential Buddhist architecture. It is built and found in large numbers in comparison to stupas and cities. In common parlance, a monastery is constructed as a hostel. The hostel is made for males and females. The female hostel in Buddhist architecture parlance is called a Nunnery and in the christen tradition it is called a Convent.  An early type of Buddhist Viharas (monasteries) consisted of an open court surrounded by empty cells accessible through an entrance porch. The Viharas in India were originally constructed to shelter the monks during the rainy season when it became difficult for them to lead the wanderer’s life. They took on a sacred character when small stūpas (housing sacred relics) and images of the Buddha were installed in the central court. The monastery architecture is built in several geometrical forms like rectangular, square, geometrical shapes etc. there are monasteries which are octagonal architecture. The finest example is from Maharaja-Vihara Monastery at Parihaspura in Kashmir.   This monastery is still extending in ruins. It has been widely described by Acharaya Kalhana in his magnum opus of Rājataraṃgiṇī. There are 22 rooms having a courtyard with a water tank filled with the drainage system lying with modern scientific innovation.

A clear idea of their plan can be obtained from examples in western India, where the Viharas were often excavated into the rock cliffs. This tradition of rock-cut structures spread along the trade routes of Central Asia (as at Bamiyan, Afghanistan), leaving many splendid monuments rich in sculpture and painting (the statues in Afghanistan were destroyed in 2001 by the country’s ruling Taliban)

As the communities of monks grew, great monastic establishments (maha viharas, “great viharas”) developed that consisted of clusters of viharas and associated stupas and temples. Renowned centres of learning, or universities, grew up at Nalanda, in present-day Bihar state, during the 5th to 12th centuries and at Nagarjunakonda, Andhra Pradesh, in the 3rd–4th centuries.

 

Rock Cut Caves: - The Cave architecture consists of almost all the Buddhist architecture like stūpas, chaityas, monasteries, and nunneries built-in rock-cut caves. The rock-cut cave Buddhist architecture came into existence when the royal patronage and general sport withdrawn in the hinterland. Because of this effect, the Buddhist monks migrated towards hilly and remote areas and there the Buddhist monks built many structures which were carved out of a single massive rock, done with hammer and chisel, and bare hands and these were also known as cave temples. About 1200 such cave temples were built throughout India. The most important and very famous of these are the Karla Caves, Ajanta Caves, Ellora Caves, Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves, Aurangabad Caves and the Pandavleni Caves. They were rectangular halls, with finely polished interior walls.

KARLA CAVES

The Karla or Karle Caves are a complex of ancient Indian Buddhist rock-cut cave shrines located in Karli near Lonavala, Maharashtra. The shrines were developed over the period – from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. The oldest cave shrines are believed to date back to 160 BC, having arisen near a major ancient trade route, running eastward from the Arabian Sea into the Deccan. Karli’s location in Maharashtra places it in a region that marks the division between North India and South India. Buddhists, having become identified with commerce and manufacturing through their early association with traders, tended to locate their monastic establishments in natural geographic formations close to major trade routes so as to provide lodging houses for travelling traders. Today, the cave complex is a protected monument under the Archaeological Survey of India.

AJANTA CAVES

The Ajanta Caves locally known as in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state of India are about 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 or 650 CE. The caves include paintings and sculptures described by the government Archaeological Survey of India as “the finest surviving examples of Indian art, particularly painting”, which are masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, with figures of the Buddha and depictions of the Jataka tales. The caves were built in two phases starting around the 2nd century BCE, with the second group of caves built around 400–650 CE according to older accounts, or all in a brief period of 460 to 480 according to the recent proposals of Walter M. Spink. The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, and since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Cave 9 is part of the heart of the Ajanta complex, begun in the second or first centuries BC. It is a large liturgical hall, with a monolithic stone stūpa carved from the living rock. This cave has a Chaitya gathering hall. There are two early paintings which survive, Frieze of Animals and Herdsmen and Naga Worshippers.

In this way, Buddhist art, and architecture are found in the form of secular and sacred. It contends the aesthetic sense and the utilization aspect of direful life.

 

 

1.      https://www.britannica.com/topic/vihara

2.      https://curatorhall.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/chaitya-halls/