CHAP. I. CLASSIFICATION. 55 3rd. Rails. These must be recognised as one of the most important features of Buddhist architecture. Generally they are found surrounding Topes, but they are also represented as enclosing sacred trees, temples, pillars, and other objects. It may be objected that treating them separately is like de- scribing the peristyle of a Greek temple apart from the cella. The Buddhist rail, however, in early ages at least, is never attached to the tope, and is used for so many other, and such various purposes, that it will certainly tend to the clearness of what follows if they are treated separately. 4th. Chaityas * or Assembly Halls. Chaitya is a more general term than stupa, and may be applied to any building of the nature of a religious monument, but more correctly to the second division of stupas, or those commemorative of acts, miracles, etc., or not funerary. 2 But it has further been restricted so as to correspond with the churches of the Christian religion : their plans, the position of the altar or relic casket, the aisles, and other peculiarities are the same in both, and their uses are identical in so far as the ritual forms of the one religion correspond to those of the other. 5th. Vihdras or Monasteries. With the Buddhists and Jains a Vihara was a hall where the monks met and walked about ; afterwards these halls came to be used as temples, and sometimes became the centres of monastic establishments. Like the Chaityas, they resemble very closely the corresponding institutions among Christians. In the earlier ages they accompanied, but were detached from, the Chaityas or churches. In later times they were furnished with chapels in which the service could be performed independently of the Chaitya halls which may or may not be found in their proximity. or 'shrine.' Dhatugarbha is thus the relic-receptacle or inner shrine, and is strictly applicable only to the dome of the stupa, sometimes called the "anda" or egg. ' Dhatus ' were not merely relics in the literal sense, but memorials in an extended acceptation, and were classified as corporeal remains ; objects belonging to the teacher, as his staff, bowl, robe, holy spots, etc. ; and any memorial, text of a sacred book, cenotaph of a teacher, etc. Stupas are known as Chaityas in Nepal, and as Dagabas in Ceylon. 1 The word Chaitya, like Stupa, means primarily a heap or tumulus, but it also means a place of sacrifice or religious worship, an altar from chitd, a heap, an assemblage, etc. Properly speaking, therefore, the chaitya caves ought perhaps to be called " halls containing a chaitya," or "chaitya halls," and this latter term will consequently be used wherever any ambiguity is likely to arise from the use of the simple term Chaitya. 2 All structures of the nature of sanctuaries are Chaityas, so that sacred trees, statues, religious inscriptions and sacred places come also under this general
