Kalawan (originally meaning "The caves") is the name of an archaeological site in the area of

Taxila Taxila or Takshashila () is a city in the Pothohar region of Punjab, Pakistan. Located in the Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District, it lies approximately northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area and is just south of the ...

in Pakistan, where it is one of the largest Buddhist establishment. It is located about 2 km from the

Dharmarajika The Dharmarajika Stupa ( Punjabi, ), also referred to as the Great Stupa of Taxila, is a Buddhist stupa near Taxila, Pakistan. It was built over the relics of the Buddha by Ashoka, the Emperor of Magadha, in the 3rd century BCE. The stupa, a ...

stupa. Kalawan has a vihara monastery, which is the largest in northern India. An inscription, recording the enshrinement of relics as a gift to the

Sarvastivadin The ''Sarvāstivāda'' (; ;) was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Ashoka (third century BCE).Westerhoff, The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy in the First Millennium CE, 2018, p. 60. It was particula ...

School, was found in a

chaitya A chaitya, chaitya hall, chaitya-griha, (Sanskrit:''Caitya''; Pāli: ''Cetiya'') refers to a shrine, sanctuary, temple or prayer hall in Indian religions. The term is most common in Buddhism, where it refers to a space with a stupa and a rounded ...

hall mentioning the date of "the 134th year of Azes," which corresponds to 77 CE. Small stupas were found inside the monasteries. The Kalawan monastery, together with the

display an original kind of architectural arrangement in which an image shrine is built opposite the entrance. It is thought that this architectural pattern was initiated in the northwest and then became the prototype for the later development of monasteries with shrines in Devnimori, Ajanta, Aurangabad, Ellora,

Nalanda Nalanda (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: , ) was a renowned Buddhism, Buddhist ''mahavihara'' (great monastery) in medieval Magadha (Mahajanapada), Magadha (modern-day Bihar), eastern India. Widely considered to be am ...

Ratnagiri Ratnagiri (IAST:Ratnāgirī ; �ət̪n̪aːɡiɾiː is a port city on the Arabian Sea coast in Ratnagiri District in southwestern Maharashtra, India. The district is part of Konkan division of Maharashtra. The city is known for the Hapus or ...

and others.

References

{{Archaeological sites in Taxila , state=expanded Stupas in Pakistan Buddhist monasteries in Pakistan Archaeological sites in Punjab, Pakistan Buddhist sites in Pakistan 1st-century Buddhism 1st-century religious buildings and structures