Chaitya

The so-called Chaitya - halls are Adoration and prayer halls in the Buddhist temples of India. Together with the numerically more frequent - Vihara ( " refuge ", " home " ) - called caves or - vacate the monks they form a Buddhist cave monastery.

History

About the origin of this so characteristic of the Buddhist art of India building type is not known - freestanding wooden models ( assembly halls? ) Are probably due to the still -preserved wooden vault in the early rock caves, have not retained. In Andhra Pradesh, there was also proven by foundation remains Chaitya halls of fired bricks, which the 3 / 2 Century BC Act. The earliest rock-cut Chaitya halls, the total offered a more representative and especially durable protection, are about the 3 / 2 Allocate century BC ( cf. Bhaja ). The remains of a late free-standing Chaitya hall from the 7th - 10th Century can be found in Sanchi; the so-called Temple No. 18 consisted of two components: an open porch ( mandapa ) and an apsidal - but only nave - worship hall ( chaitya ).

In general it can be assumed that the Chaitya halls are among the earliest buildings within a Buddhist cave monastery - only the existence of such hall allowed the Buddhist rite of worship pradakshina and attracted ( ready to donate ) pilgrims.

Function

Chaitya halls served both to protect the cult image (initially only stupa, and later Buddha image ) as well as the protection of the monks and believers from the weather (sunshine, storm, monsoon ). The aisles along with the apse handling permit - so important for the Buddhist worship rite - circumambulation ( pradakshina ) of the stupa or cult image. Whether a (Rank ) difference between the near- circumnavigation - connected with a possible touch of the stupa and / or the cult image - and distanced Pradakshina was made, is an open question. Exterior walls and facade of Chaityas limits the profane and sacred world from each other.

Architecture

The Chaitya halls are often shared by two lateral rows of columns ( pillars or columns) in a wide nave and two narrow aisles. The out -hewn out of the natural rock roof is curved (half ton in the nave, quarter tons in the aisles ) and is in early Chaitya - halls of a - dare wooden beams, which has been preserved in the early cave temples of Bhaja and Karli - static totally unnecessary was restored or in part; in later buildings of this entablature was reproduced in stone ( Ellora Cave No. 10) - constructively also meaningless.

The Blessed Sacrament is an internally standing stupa, the 4th from about the / 5 Century AD a Buddha image was presented. The Stupa is surrounded by a walkway for the ritual avoidance ( pradakshina ); the aisles form a semicircular apse handling in the rear of the hall.

Originally, the Chaitya halls were closed with a wooden façade, in which one or more doors opened and in its upper part sunlight coming through a large window opening and - on certain day or seasons - irradiated the stupa in directly, and the rest of the hall largely left in the dark. Although these wooden facades and wooden gates are gone, so you have to still get the holes in some cases where they were once attached. Later buildings were stone facades; these were the same with the hall from the rock worked out (see Ajanta Caves Ranked # 9, 19 and 26). The cave 19 of Ajanta (6th / 7th century ) received even a small worked out from the rock porch ( mandapa ).

Bauzier

From the Bauzier early - constructed of wood or brick - Chaitya halls is not known. The earliest - carved into the rock - Chaitya halls were largely unadorned; the props were simple ( octagonal ) pillars without base and capital. In the later buildings, the columns were first provided with bases and capitals decorated, then the entire architrave was decorated with relief figures; the aisle walls were provided with Buddha sculptures and / or painted.

A popular decorative motif on the facades of Chaitya halls were - already trained in earlier, non-preserved wooden houses - arches above windows or window niches ( chandrasalas or kudus ); these were of the - catch ogee arches, which, moreover, were sometimes also fed in the lower part, so that the earliest known horseshoe arches emerged - at that time in Europe and in other parts of the world completely unknown; the ogee arches themselves, however, are not formed regularly as load-bearing structures, but only as a blind arches.

This stereo window ( chandrasalas or kudus ) are - usually in a reduced form and in large numbers to panels ( udgamas ) together - North Indian in an ever- recurring and determining decorative motif on the facades and the shikhara towers Temple of the 8th to the 13th century ( Kalika Mata Temple, Teli -ka- Mandir, Lakshman temple; Kandariya Mahadeva Temple ).