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Notices of Buddhist Architecture...
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"Lord Buddha's shrine is constructed without doors. In (the customary) door-positions, niches are to be made along the cardinal directions. In the central position may be set up the image lost in contemplation."
The doorless Buddhist shrine with niches (implied to bear Buddha figures ?) is very probably the stupa, of the type that became popular from the seventh century onwards.
The two references here discussed, are, though succinct, valuable since notices on Buddhist sacred art and architecture in vastu manuals are rare to encounter.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1 Vide Umakant Premanand Shab, Svadhyaya, Vol. I, No. 3, May 1964.
Gujarat-man Bauddha-dharma ",
2 The destruction of Valabhi in about 784 was a set-back to Jainism in Gujarat. But fresh waves probably emanating from Mathura inVigorated Jaina movement in Wastern India as a whole.
3 The work is being edited at present by Shri Prabhashankar Q. Sompura and myself.
25 Jaya is the first of the four mind-born sons of Viśvakarma. The Vastuvidya is in a dialogue form between Viśvakarma and Jaya,
4 Tara-harmya, as the text so refers.
5 Called citrusala in the citation.
6 This work, too, is being edited by Sompura and myself.
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The text uses the term ala for the niche. Alaka and ala for niche are known from the fifteenth century epigraphical and literary sources in Western India.
Brahmasthane as the text enjoins.
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