Buddhist architecture

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Buddhist religious architecture developed in the South Asia in the third century BC.

Two types of structures are associated with the religious architecture of early Buddhism: viharas and stupas.

Viharas initially was 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

The initial function of a stupa was the veneration and safe-guarding of the relics of the Buddha. The earliest existing example of a stupa is in Sanchi (Madhya Pradesh). In accordance with changes in religious practice, stupas were gradually incorporated into chaitya-grihas (stupa halls). These reached their highpoint in the first century BC, exemplified by the cave complexes of Ajanta and Ellora (Maharashtra).

Pagoda is an evolution of the Indian stupa.They are found in the Ajanta and Ellora caves.

Buddhist temples were developed rather later and outside the South Asia, where Buddhism gradually declined from the early centuries AD onwards, though an early example is that of the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya in Bihar.