During the life of the Buddha (sixth to fifth century BCE), he and his disciples were sheltered by lay followers near various urban centers in North India. After his death, according to Buddhist tradition, his body was given royal cremation, and relics were distributed among eight city-states, which then established royal burial mounds (stupas) incorporating these relics in order to memorialize him. Two centuries later the Mauryan emperor Aśoka (r. c. 270–230 BCE) is said to have reopened these stupas to distribute the relics more widely in his attempt to spread the Buddha's teachings; Buddhist tradition relates that Aśoka established 84,000 stupas throughout the empire.

Compounds in South Asia

Though shelters for the monks and stupas as monuments to memorialize the Buddha and his teaching defined the physical requirements of Buddhist architecture for many centuries, symbolic and ritual...