viharan.

1681 R. Knox Hist. Relation Ceylon iii. iii. 74 Their Temples are styled Vehars... Many of the Vehars are endowed and have Farms belonging to them.

1875 Encycl. Brit. II. 394 Of the next two classes of Buddhist architecture, the temples (Chaityas) and monasteries (Viharas), no built examples exist in India.

1901 R. Kipling Kim i. 8 There were..fragments of statues and slabs crowded with figures that had encrusted the brick walls of the Buddhist stupas and viharas of the North Country.

1913 L. Woolf Village in Jungle i. 12 Years ago..he had gone on a pilgrimage to the vihare at Medamahanuwara.

1930 J. Still Jungle Tide ix. 220 In the vihara, every Buddhist monk is a member of an order, a celibate by profession.

1956 R. Pieris Sinhalese Social Organization i. iv. 24 The vihāra..villages..were exempt from their jurisdiction.

1978 C. Humphreys Both Sides of Circle v. 56 In 1928 three monks were sent from Ceylon by the Anagarika to found the first Western vihara or monastery.