vihara

American  

[vi-hahr-uh] / vɪˈhɑr ə /

noun

1. a meeting place of Buddhist monks.

2. a Buddhist monastery.

3. Also called Brahma Vihara. (initial capital letter) one of the four states of mind, namely love, compassion, sympathetic gladness, and equanimity, to be developed by every Buddhist.

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Etymology

Origin of vihara

First recorded in 1875–80, vihara is from the Sanskrit word vihāra

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vihara

A noted vihara in the suburbs of Sravasti, erected in a park which Anatha-pindika bought of prince Jeta, the son of Prasenajit.

From A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline by Faxian

I found it, very easily, in the bushes exactly under our vihara, at the foot of the rock over which the tiger had rolled, already dead.

From From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan by H. P. (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky

I sprang up: a tremendous roar deafened me, filling the vihara, wakening the slumbering echoes, and resounding, like the softened rumbling of thunder, over all the borders of the precipice.

From From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan by H. P. (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky

In the chief hall of the vihara was a life-sized statue of Bhavani, the feminine aspect of Shiva.

From From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan by H. P. (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky

It bears an oblong terrace covered with the ruins of several buildings, especially of a vihara.

From A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline by Faxian