Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/207

 CHAP. VI. VIHARAS. 91- 92- Square and oblong Cells from a Bas-relief at Bharaut. by wooden posts above the ground - floor, and used as the common day - rooms of the monks. The sleeping - cells (Woodcuts Nos. 91, 92) were apparently on the terraces, and may have been such as are frequently represented in the bas-reliefs at Bharaut and from Gandhara. Alternately they seem to have been square and oblong, and with smaller apartments between. Of course we must not take too literally a representation of a monastery, carried out solidly in the rock for a different pur- pose, as an absolutely correct representation of its original. The importance, however, of this form, as explaining the peculiarities of subsequent Buddhist and Dravidian archi- tecture, is so great that it is well worth quoting here, though this will be more evident in the sequel than it can be at present. In construction the breadth, in a structural building, would probably have been greater in proportion to the height than in this example, but that is of little consequence for our present purposes. It is, of course, always difficult, sometimes impossible, to realise the form of buildings from verbal descriptions only, and the Chinese Pilgrims were not adepts at architectural defini- tions. Still Hiuen Tsiang's description of the great Nalanda monastery is important, and so germane to our present subject that it cannot well be passed over. This celebrated monastery, which was the Monte Casino of India for the first five centuries of our era, was situated at the modern Baragaon, 34 miles south-south-west of Patna, and 7 miles north of the old capital of Rajagriha. If not founded under the auspices of the celebrated Nagarjuna about the ist century A.D., he at all events resided there, introducing the Mahayana or "great translation," and making it the seat of that school for Central India. After his time six successive kings had built as many viharas on this spot, when one of them surrounded the whole with a high wall, which can still be traced, measuring 1600 ft. north and south, by 400 ft, and enclosing eight separate courts. Externally to this en- closure were numerous stupas or tower-like viharas, ten or twelve of which are easily recognised, and have been identified, with more or less certainty, by General Cunningham, from the Pilgrim's description. The general appearance of the