Buddhist religious architecture developed in the Indian subcontinent.
Three types of structures are associated with the religious architecture of early Buddhism:
monasteries (viharas), places to venerate relics (
stupas), and shrines or prayer halls, which later came to be called
temples in some places.
The initial function of a
stupa was the veneration and safe-guarding of the relics of Gautama Buddha. The earliest archaeologically known example of a stupa is the relic stupa located in Vaishali, .