Place the monastery where it is neither too far from the town nor too near: easy to come and go for all who wish to visit, not crowded by day, quiet at night, apart from the noise of people, fit for seclusion.
King Bimbisāra of Magadha, looking for a place to give the Buddha, reasons out these qualities and finds them in his Bamboo Grove outside Rājagṛha. The same balance governed monastery sites for fifteen centuries: close enough to a town or village for the daily alms round and for lay donors, far enough for meditation. Sanchi stands on a hill about eight kilometres from Vidisha.
Set a vertical rod at the centre of the levelled site, draw a circle round it, mark where the tip of its shadow crosses the circle before and after noon, and join the two marks: that line runs east–west.
E–W = chord through the morning and afternoon shadow points; N–S ⟂ through its midpoint
The cord stretched along the diagonal of a rectangle produces as much area as the cords along its two sides together; use this to set out right angles and to make squares of any required area.
d² = a² + b²; e.g. cords of 3, 4, 5 or 5, 12, 13 units
Open the railing at the four cardinal points and mark each opening with a torana: two posts carrying three curved architraves with scrolled ends, crowned with Buddhist emblems.
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, “Neither too far from the town nor too near”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/vinaya-monastery-site. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.