Build the stupa as a solid hemispherical mound (anda) over relics, on a circular terrace (medhi), and crown it with a railed enclosure (harmika) and a mast of parasols (chattra).
Sanchi: Ø ≈ 36.6 m, height ≈ 16.5 m (without the crown)
The monastery the Vinaya allows
Give the monks dwellings of cells round a court with a verandah, a single gateway, and a wall round the whole; add halls for assembly and worship, wells and a bath-house, as they are needed.
The Cullavagga permits five kinds of dwelling and then, case by case, the parts of a monastery: doors and bolts, windows, walls, cells, verandahs, a gatehouse, an assembly hall, a fire-hall, a store, a walking path, wells and a hot bath-house. In stone and brick these became the Indian vihāra: a square of cells round an open court, one entrance, and, from the Gupta period, a shrine for the Buddha’s image opposite it.
Related rules
Provide a path for circumambulation (pradakshina) in the clockwise direction, keeping the sacred object on the right, and enclose it with a railing that separates the sacred ground.
Enshrine the relics of a Buddha, like those of a universal king, in a stupa raised where four great roads meet, so that all who pass may honour them.
Let monks and pilgrims raise small stupas for merit close round the great stupa, so that its terrace fills over the centuries with lesser monuments.
Settle the four varṇas in four quarters of the town: Brahmins to the north, Kṣatriyas to the east, Vaiśyas to the south and Śūdras to the west.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “The monastery the Vinaya allows”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/vinaya-monastery-plan. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.