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CHAPTER-II THE EVOLUTION OF THE CAITYA-GRIHA (i) The Concept of Caitya Worship and the Erection of the Stupa The highest objects of worship for the Buddhist are Triratna or the three Jewles (1) the Buddha (2) the Dharma and (3) the Sangha. Accordingly over the relics of holy persons like the Buddha, the Pratyeka-Buddhas, the Arhats and the Cakravartins, over which great monuments were erected. The chief corporeal relics are those which are properly called Sariras, i. e.; the remains of a corpse after cremation¹. The most general name for a sanctuary is 'Caitya' a term not applying to buildings, but to sacred trees, memorial stones, holy spots, images and religious inscriptions. Hence all edifices having the character of sacred monument are caityas, but not all caityas are edifices. We know that memorial mounds were erected over the relics of worthy people even in the Pre-Buddhist age. The word caitya is derived from the word cita, or funeral pile, and denotes anything connected with a funeral pile, e. g, the tumulus raised over the bones of dead saint, Although generally speaking caitya means a relic shrine or a temple or any place of worship technically it means a mound. A term stupa is analogous to caitya, as it also means a mound, or something which is raised. Later, the term caitya came to mean a shrine, an alter or a temple. For our purposes it is necessary for us to understand caitya as meaning a mound containing a relic; e. g. ashes, bones, hair, or a tooth of the Buddha. Caitya is a religious term while Stupa is an architectural term for a relic mound.2 " 1. Bapat. P. V. "2500 years of Buddhism.' (1956) p. 2. 8-9. 2. Ibid. p. 280-281.

4 The Structural Temples of Gujarat The Stupa originated as a pilled-up burial-tumulus and constituted the most characteristic monument of worship in the Buddhist religion, although Jain stupas are also known,s This was the chief religious edifice or an object of Buddist cult worship. The sacred object in Buddhism was body relics. of Buddha which were originally enshrined in eight or ten monuments. In course of time, Stupas began to be built not only to enshrine the relics of Buddha or Buddhist saints but also to commemorate spots and events of religious significance. Architecturally, the stupa was a solid structural dome (anda) usually raised on one or more terraces and invariably surmounted by a railed pavilion ( harmika) from which rose the shaft of the crowning umbrella (chatra ). The stupa had one or more circumambulatory passages ( pradakshina-patha ) which were enclosed by railing ( vedika). The earlier stupas were open to the sky and were hemispherical in shape with low base while the latter ones assumed on increasingly cylindrical form with a well-developed drum and covered and enclosed within a caitya-griha.4