Vihāra
Vihāra generally refers to a Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery for Buddhist renunciates, mostly in the Indian subcontinent. The concept is ancient and in early Pali texts, it meant any arrangement of space or facilities for dwellings. The term evolved into an architectural concept wherein it refers to living quarters for monks with an open shared space or courtyard, particularly in Buddhism. The term is also found in Jain monastic literature, usually referring to temporary refuge for wandering monks or nuns during the annual Indian monsoons. In modern Jainism, the monks continue to wander from town to town except during the rainy season, and the term "vihara" refers to their wanderings.
Vihara or vihara hall has a more specific meaning in the architecture of India, especially ancient Indian rock-cut architecture. Here it means a central hall, with small cells connected to it, sometimes with beds carved from the stone. Some have a shrine cell set back at the centre of the back wall, containing a stupa in early examples, or a Buddha statue later. Typical large sites such as the Ajanta Caves, Aurangabad Caves, Karli Caves, and Kanheri Caves contain several viharas. Some included a chaitya or worship hall nearby. The vihara originated as a shelter for monks when it rains.
Etymology and nomenclature
The word means a form of rest house, temple or monastery in ascetic traditions of India, particularly for a group of monks. It particularly referred to a hall that was used as a temple or where monks met and some walked about. In the context of the performative arts, the term means the theatre, playhouse, convent or temple compound to meet, perform or relax in. Later it referred to a form of temple or monastery construction in Buddhism and Jainism, wherein the design has a central hall and attached separated shrines for residence either for monks or for deities and sacred figure such as Tirthankaras, Gautama Buddha. The word means a Jain or Buddhist temple or "dwelling, waiting place" in many medieval era inscriptions and texts, from vi-har which means "to construct".It contrasts with or, which means "forest". In medieval era, the term meant any monastery, particularly for Buddhist monks. Matha is another term for monastery in the Buddhist tradition, today normally used for Hindu establishments.
The eastern Indian state of Bihar derives its name from vihāra due to the abundance of Buddhist monasteries in that area. The word has also been borrowed in Malay as biara, denoting a monastery or other non-Muslim place of worship. It is called a wihan in Thai, and vĭhéar in Khmer. In Burmese, wihara, means "monastery", but the native Burmese word kyaung is preferred. Monks wandering from place to place preaching and seeking alms often stayed together in the sangha. In the Punjabi language, an open space inside a home is called a vehra.
In Korea, Japan, Vietnam and China, the word for a Buddhist temple or monastery seems to have a different origin. The Japanese word for a Buddhist temple is Tera, it was anciently also written phonetically 天良 tera, and it is cognate with the Modern Korean Chǒl from Middle Korean Tiel, the Jurchen Taira and the reconstructed Old Chinese *dɘiaʁ, all meaning "Buddhist Monastery". These words are apparently derived from the Aramaic word for "monastery" dērā/ dairā/ dēr, rather than from the unrelated Indian word for monastery vihara, and may have been transmitted to China by the first Central Asian translators of Buddhist scriptures, such as An Shigao or Lokaksema.
Origins
Viharas as pleasure centers
During the 3rd-century BCE era of Ashoka, vihara yatras were travel stops aimed at enjoyments, pleasures and hobbies such as hunting. These contrasted with dharma yatras which related to religious pursuits and pilgrimage. After Ashoka converted to Buddhism, states Lahiri, he started dharma yatras around mid 3rd century BCE instead of hedonistic royal vihara yatras.Viharas as monasteries
The early history of viharas is unclear. Monasteries in the form of caves are dated to centuries before the start of the common era, for Ajivikas, Buddhists and Jainas. The rock-cut architecture found in cave viharas from the 2nd-century BCE have roots in the Maurya Empire period. In and around the Bihar state of India are a group of residential cave monuments all dated to be from pre-common era, reflecting the Maurya architecture. Some of these have Brahmi script inscription which confirms their antiquity, but the inscriptions were likely added to pre-existing caves. The oldest layer of Buddhist and Jain texts mention legends of the Buddha, the Jain Tirthankaras or sramana monks living in caves. If these records derived from an oral tradition accurately reflect the significance of monks and caves in the times of the Buddha and the Mahavira, then cave residence tradition dates back to at least the 5th century BCE. According to Allchin and Erdosy, the legend of First Buddhist Council is dated to a period just after the death of the Buddha. It mentions monks gathering at a cave near Rajgiri, and this dates it in pre-Mauryan times. However, the square courtyard with cells architecture of vihara, state Allchin and Erdosy, is dated to the Mauryan period. The earlier monastic residences of Ajivikas, Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains were likely outside rock cliffs and made of temporary materials and these have not survived.The earliest known gift of immovable property for monastic purposes ever recorded in an Indian inscription is credited to Emperor Ashoka, and it is a donation to the Ajivikas. According to Johannes Bronkhorst, this created competitive financial pressures on all traditions, including the Hindu Brahmins. This may have led to the development of viharas as shelters for monks, and evolution in the Ashrama concept to agraharas or Hindu monasteries. These shelters were normally accompanied by donation of revenue from villages nearby, who would work and support these cave residences with food and services. The Karle inscription dated to the 1st century CE donates a cave and nearby village, states Bronkhorst, "for the support of the ascetics living in the caves at Valuraka without any distinction of sect or origin". Buddhist texts from Bengal, dated to centuries later, use the term asrama-vihara or agrahara-vihara for their monasteries.
Buddhist viharas or monasteries may be described as a residence for monks, a centre for religious work and meditation and a centre of Buddhist learning. Reference to five kinds of dwellings namely, Vihara, Addayoga, Pasada, Hammiya and Guha is found in the Buddhist canonical texts as fit for monks. Of these only the Vihara and Guha have survived.
At some stage of Buddhism, like other Indian religious traditions, the wandering monks of the Sangha dedicated to asceticism and the monastic life, wandered from place to place. During the rainy season they stayed in temporary shelters. In Buddhist theology relating to rebirth and merit earning, it was considered an act of merit not only to feed a monk but also to shelter him, sumptuous monasteries were created by rich lay devotees.
Architecture
The only substantial remains of very early viharas are in the rock-cut complexes, mostly in north India, the Deccan in particular, but this is an accident of survival. Originally structural viharas of stone or brick would probably have been at least as common everywhere, and the norm in the south. By the second century BCE a standard plan for a vihara was established; these form the majority of Buddhist rock-cut "caves". It consisted of a roughly square rectangular hall, in rock-cut cases, or probably an open court in structural examples, off which there were a number of small cells. Rock-cut cells are often fitted with rock-cut platforms for beds and pillows. The front wall had one or more entrances, and often a verandah. Later the back wall facing the entrance had a fairly small shrine-room, often reached through an ante-chamber. Initially these held stupas, but later a large sculpted Buddha image, sometimes with reliefs on the walls. The verandah might also have sculpture, and in some cases the walls of the main hall. Paintings were perhaps more common, but these rarely survive, except in a few cases such as Caves 2, 10, 11 and 17 at the Ajanta Caves. As later rock-cut viharas are often on up to three storeys, this was also probably the case with the structural ones.As the vihara acquired a central image, it came to take over the function of the chaitya worship hall, and eventually these ceased to be built. This was despite the rock-cut vihara shrine room usually offering no path for circumambulation or pradakshina, an important ritual practice.
In early medieval era, Viharas became important institutions and a part of Buddhist Universities with thousands of students, such as Nalanda. Life in "Viharas" was codified early on. It is the object of a part of the Pali canon, the Vinaya Pitaka or "basket of monastic discipline". Shalban Vihara in Bangladesh is an example of a structural monastery with 115 cells, where the lower parts of the brick-built structure have been excavated. Somapura Mahavihara, also in Bangladesh, was a larger vihara, mostly 8th-century, with 177 cells around a huge central temple.
Variants in rock-cut viharas
Usually the standard form as described above is followed, but there are some variants. Two vihara halls, Cave 5 at Ellora and Cave 11 at Kanheri, have very low platforms running most of the length of the main hall. These were probably used as some combination of benches or tables for dining, desks for study, and possibly beds. They are often termed "dining-hall" or the "Durbar Hall" at Kanheri, on no good evidence.Cave 11 at the Bedse Caves is a fairly small 1st-century vihara, with nine cells in the interior and originally four around the entrance, and no shrine room. It is distinguished by elaborate gavaksha and railing relief carving around the cell-doors, but especially by having a rounded roof and apsidal far end, like a chaitya hall.