caityacaves
Caitya caves, or chaitya halls, are a distinctive form of Buddhist rock-cut architecture that emerged in ancient India. They were built as prayer halls and places for communal worship, carved from living rock or cut out of cliff faces, often into hillside monasteries. The name caitya derives from Sanskrit for shrine, and the term chaitya hall denotes the long ceremonial nave that culminates in a stupa.
The typical plan comprises a long nave leading to an apse or circular sanctuary that houses a
Chaitya caves were most extensively developed and popular from roughly the 2nd century BCE to the 5th
The chaitya tradition influenced later Indian religious architecture and informed the aesthetic vocabulary of Buddhist and