Chaitya and vihara

Topic: Early Indian Art and Architecture: Stupas, Rock-cut Caves, Temples · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 5 "The Rise of Empires"; Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation"; Class 7, Ch 7 "The Gupta Era: An Age of Tireless Creativity"

Meaning

A chaitya (also called chaityagriha) is a Buddhist prayer hall with a stupa at the far end. Monks gathered there to worship, and they walked around the stupa. A vihara is a monastery where monks lived: small cells for sleeping and study, set around an open hall or courtyard. Karla is a famous chaitya. Most of the caves at Ajanta are viharas. The pair matters because almost every Buddhist cave site in India mixes these two types. Together they show how monks lived, how they worshipped, and who paid for it all.

Explanation

Background: why halls and monasteries were cut into rock

• Buddhist monks gave up home life. In the rainy season they needed a fixed place to stay, and they needed a place to worship together.
• In the rock-cut method, workers did not build up from blocks. They cut into a hill and took stone away until a hall was left. The whole building is one piece of rock, with no joints, mortar or brick.
• The idea began at Barabar (Bihar). Its caves were cut in the 3rd century BCE on Asoka's orders for the Ajivikas. The Ajivikas were renouncers (people who gave up home and family) and a rival sect to the Buddhists.
• Many caves were cut on the trade routes that ran from the Konkan coast through the Western Ghats to the Deccan. Traders and groups of craftsmen paid for them.

The chaitya: the prayer hall

• Plan: a long hall that is usually apsidal, meaning one end is rounded like a "U".
• Stupa: a stupa stands at the rounded end. At Karla it is a rock-cut stupa replica: a stupa carved out of the living rock, not built and placed there.
• Pillars: rows of pillars divide the hall. They leave a path behind the stupa, so monks could walk around it. This walk is called pradakshina (circumambulation).
• Roof and doorway: the roof is often a barrel vault (shaped like half a cylinder), with stone ribs that copy wooden beams. The entrance usually has a chaitya arch (a curved, horseshoe-shaped arch).
• This arch first appears over the door of the Lomas Rishi cave at Barabar. There an elephant frieze (a carved band of elephants) runs above it, and the door copies a barrel-vault roof resting on raked (slanting) pillars [2].
• So the stone copies older wooden buildings. The wood has rotted away, and these stone copies are our only picture of it.

The vihara: the monastery

• Plan: a central hall or courtyard with small cells cut into its walls. Each cell was a monk's room.
• Use: monks lived, slept and studied here. At Ajanta, the caves that are not prayer halls are called viharas / sangharamas (places where monks lived) [5].
• Shrine: later viharas, like those at Ajanta, have a shrine with a Buddha image cut into the back wall. Their pillars, brackets, door frames and fronts are richly carved [5].
• Paintings: Ajanta's walls carry murals painted in tempera (pigment mixed with a binder and painted on dry, prepared plaster) [5]. The Bodhisattva Padmapani painting is in Cave 1 [6]. A Bodhisattva is a being who could reach nirvana but stays back to help others. Padmapani means "lotus in hand".
• A Jaina parallel: at Udayagiri-Khandagiri (Odisha) the caves were plain dwelling retreats for Jaina monks. They were small cells to live in, not grand prayer halls [4]. This shows the living-cell idea was not only Buddhist.

How the two forms changed over time

• Early stage (Satavahana period): the chaitya stupa is a plain symbol with no Buddha figure. Karla is the best example.
• Later stage (Vakataka phase at Ajanta, 5th–6th centuries CE) [5]:
• In one Ajanta cave a seated Buddha comes out of the central stupa. The stupa and the image are joined into one.
• The roof still imitates wooden beams.

• This shows the move from worshipping a symbol to worshipping an image.

• Result: by the 8th century the rock-cut tradition moved to Brahmanical temples. The Kailashnatha temple at Ellora was cut downward from the top of a rock, not dug sideways into a cliff like a chaitya or vihara [7].

Time, place and evidence

• Period: c. 2nd century BCE to 6th century CE for the main Buddhist chaitya-vihara sites. The Ajanta caves span the 2nd century BCE to the 6th century CE [5].
• Karla (near Lonavala, Maharashtra):
• A Satavahana-period Buddhist chaitya with magnificent pillars and a rock-cut stupa.

• A protected site listed by the ASI [3].

• Ajanta (Maharashtra):

• Cut into a vertical cliff above the left bank of the river Waghora [5].
• 30 caves in all (counting unfinished ones). Five are chaityagrihas: caves 9, 10, 19, 26 and 29. The rest are viharas [5].
• Cut in two phases. The second phase belongs to the Vakataka period [5].

• It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site [5].

• Patrons at Ajanta:

• The caves were cut with Gupta-Vakataka support.
• Varahadeva, minister of the Vakataka king Harishena (c. 475–500 CE), gave Cave 16 to the Buddhist Sangha [5].

• Cave 17 was a gift from a feudatory prince (a lesser ruler under a bigger one) of the same king [5].

• Wider patronage:

• The Satavahanas gave tax-free land to Vedic scholars, Jaina monks and Buddhist monks alike.

• At Pitalkhora a yaksha figure (a nature spirit) is signed by Kanhadasa, a goldsmith. This shows that craftsmen also took part in cave art.

• Evidence: the caves themselves, the donor inscriptions that name patrons like Varahadeva, and the murals and carvings.

Don't confuse with

• Stupa: a solid mound that holds relics, and you cannot go inside it. A chaitya is a hall you enter, with a stupa inside it.
• Chaitya arch: a horseshoe-shaped design over a door or window, as at Lomas Rishi, Barabar [2]. A chaitya hall is a whole building. Lomas Rishi has the arch, but it was cut for the Ajivikas, not as a Buddhist prayer hall.
• Chaitya and vihara in one cave site: Ajanta is mostly viharas, but it also has 5 chaityas (caves 9, 10, 19, 26, 29) [5]. If a question says "Ajanta caves are all viharas" or "all chaityas", both are wrong.
• Udayagiri-Khandagiri caves: these are Jaina living cells of Kharavela's time, not Buddhist viharas. There are 33 caves, 18 on Udayagiri and 15 on Khandagiri [4].

Prelims Hooks

• Chaitya = prayer hall with a stupa; vihara = monks' living quarters with cells.
• Karla (near Lonavala, Maharashtra): Satavahana-period Buddhist chaitya with a rock-cut stupa replica [3].
• Ajanta: 30 caves above the Waghora river. The chaityagrihas are caves 9, 10, 19, 26 and 29, and the rest are viharas [5].
• Ajanta Cave 16 (a vihara) was given by Varahadeva, minister of the Vakataka king Harishena (c. 475–500 CE) [5].
• Bodhisattva Padmapani painting is in Ajanta Cave 1, painted in tempera [5][6].
• The chaitya arch first appears at the Lomas Rishi cave, Barabar (Bihar), which was cut under Asoka for the Ajivikas, not the Buddhists [2].

Mains Points

• Chaitya and vihara show the two sides of monastic life: worship and living.
• The chaitya served shared worship. Monks walked around the stupa together.
• The vihara served daily life, study and teaching. Over time it gained its own shrine and paintings, so the line between the two blurred.

• Ajanta has both types at one site (5 chaityas, the rest viharas) [5]. It shows a full monastic community, not just a temple.

• They record the change from symbol to image in Buddhism.

• At Karla the stupa is a plain symbol with no Buddha figure.
• At Ajanta in the Vakataka phase, a seated Buddha comes out of the stupa.

• This change runs alongside the growth of image worship. It helps explain why later Indian religious buildings centre on an image in a shrine.

• They prove that patronage was wide and spread across sects.

• Satavahana land grants went to Vedic, Jaina and Buddhist groups alike.
• Traders on the Western Ghats routes and a goldsmith (Kanhadasa) took part.
• At Ajanta, a minister and a feudatory prince are named donors [5].
• So the caves are evidence of a society where merchants, officials and local kings, not only emperors, paid for religious art.
• Their stone copies of wooden roofs and arches [2] also preserve buildings that are otherwise lost.

Related concepts

• Rock-cut architecture
• Barabar caves
• Lomas Rishi cave
• Nagarjuni caves
• Rock-cut monasteries
• Bhaja caves
• Karla caves
• Kanheri caves
• Nasik caves
• Guntupalli caves

Read more

• The rock-cut tradition