Buddhist architecture

Part -I
 Ashokan Pillar, Lauriya-Nandangarh
Bihar.

Ashoka Pillar Lion Capital, Sarnath

•Sthambas or Pillars with religious emblems were put up by pious Buddhists in honour of
Buddha or other great Buddhists.
•Fragments of sthambas belonging to Mauryan times and later were found at Sanchi,
Sarnath, Amaravati and Nagarjunkonda.
•A portion of the Ashoka Pillar, 15.25 metres high, surmounted by the famous lion-capital and
a dharma chakra above the heads of the four lions stands embedded near the Dharmarajika
stupa at Sarnath.
•The pillar bears the edict of Ashoka warning the monks and nuns against creating a schism
in the monastic order. The broken fragments of the Pillar are now in the Museum at Sarnath.
The lion-capital - the most
•magnificient piece of Mauryan sculpture is 2.31 metres high.
•It consists of four parts –
(i) a bell-shaped vase covered with inverted lotus petals,
(ii) a round abacus,
(iii) four seated lions and
(iv) a crowning dharmachakra with thirty two spokes.

The four lions are beautifully sculptured.

On the abacus are four running animals - an elephant, a bull, a horse and a. lion with a small
dharmachakra between them.
The dharmachakra symbolises the dharma or law;
the four lions facing the four directions are the form of Buddha or Sakyasimha,
the four galloping animals are the four quarters according to Buddhist books
and the four smaller dharmachakras stand for the intermediate regions and
the lotus is the symbol of creative activity.
The surface of these pillars has a mirror like finish.
 Buddhist religious architecture
developed
in the South Asia in the third century BC.

Three types of structures

are associated with the
religious architecture of
early Buddhism:

monasteries (viharas),
stupas, and
temples (chaitya grihas).
Viharas initially were only temporary
shelters used by wandering monks during
the rainy season, but later were
developed to accommodate the growing
and increasingly formalised Buddhist
monasticism. An existing example is at
Nalanda (Bihar). A distinctive type of
fortress architecture found in the former
and present Buddhist kingdoms of the
Himalayas are dzongs. Vihara at Ellora

Vihara at Nasik
The initial function of a
stupa was the veneration
and safe-guarding of the
relics of the Buddha.

The earliest surviving

example of a
stupa is in Sanchi (Madhya
Pradesh).

The Pagoda is an evolution

of the Indian stupa.
•In accordance
with changes in
religious practice,
stupas were
gradually
incorporated into
chaitya-grihas
(temple halls).
•These reached
their highpoint in
the first century
BC, exemplified
by the cave
complexes of
Ajanta and Ellora
(Maharashtra).
•The Mahabodhi
Temple at Bodh
Gaya in Bihar is
another well
known example.