Pillars and edicts of the Mauryan emperor
As ́oka (mid-third century B.C.E.)
An apparent convert to Buddhism, Emperor AS ́OKA
(r. ca. 268–232 B.C.E.) of the Mauryan period spon-
sored the first large-scale and most well-known Indian
imagery. After witnessing the carnage at an excessively
bloody battle in Orissa, it is said that As ́oka took up
the Buddhist cause of nonviolence. Throughout his
empire, at crossroads and places sacred to Buddhists,
As ́oka had monolithic pillars engraved with political
edicts and Buddhist precepts. Most of the messages
are in the Brahmscript, the earliest writing used in
India. Only about thirty of the Mauryan-period
columns remain. The capitals of the pillars are com-
posite, with inverted lotus-petal bells, an abacus, and
crowning animals. The pillars are made from one shaft
of sandstone (monolithic) from thirty- to forty-feet
high, sunk deep into the ground, and polished by the
application of heat, which gives them a glassy and
durable finish.
The modern flag of India includes the As ́okan lion
capital as an emblem of the unification of India un-
der one government during the Mauryan period. Its
powerful silhouette of four addorsed lions once sup-
ported an enormous wheel that symbolized the Bud-
dha’s first sermon, the “turning of the Wheel of
the Dharma” (dharmacakrapravartana), which took
place near Sarnath. The lions are carved in a highly
abstract way reminiscent of the composite lion cap-
itals of Achaemenid Persia, but all other features of
these free-standing pillars are purely Indian. The
four lions facing in four directions probably signify
the sovereignty of both As ́oka, since the pillar was
erected near the capital of his kingdom, and of the
truths taught by the Buddha, whose clan, the S ́akyas,
used the lion as their emblem. Around the abacus are
four small wheels alternating with naturalistically
carved animals (lion, elephant, bull, horse), which
have great significance to indigenous clan traditions.
The lion is especially associated with royalty and
power in India. The pillars themselves also signify
the pan-Indian idea of the axis of the world (axis
mundi) that links the cosmic waters below with the
sun above. Floral motifs, such as the palmettes and
rosettes sometimes found on the As ́okan capitals, are
more familiar in distant Mediterranean regions, but
their appearance in India can be explained by the
trade relations of India with the West and by the in-
cursion of Alexander the Great into the northwest
provinces of India.
Stupas and stone reliefs (second century B.C.E.
to first century C.E.)
In addition to free-standing pillars, As ́oka had stupas,
or reliquary mounds, erected in India, Sri Lanka, and
Nepal to commemorate the Buddha and to designate
worship and teaching centers. According to legend,
As ́oka opened up the original eight stupas containing
the Buddha’s relics and redistributed them in eighty-
four thousand simple burial mounds.
The earliest known monumental stupa was erected
at Bharhut in Madhya Pradesh in about 100 to 80 B.C.E.
Constructed in red sandstone, it consisted of a central
burial mound, now lost, surrounded by elaborate rail-
ings (vedika) with four gates (torana) carved with re-
liefs. Most of the fragments from Bharhut are on
display at the Indian Museum in Calcutta. The reliefs
emphasize the abundance of nature in their depictions
of YAKSASand yaksls(male and female fertility spirits),
lotuses, elephants, and composite water creatures.
Medallions with vignettes of the Buddha’s life, as well
as stories of his previous births (JATAKA), are carved in
a low-relief style, often using continuous narration,
with the same characters appearing more than once,
in a shallow, almost two-dimensional space. The carv-
ings accentuate geometric patterns, including elabo-
rate tattoos on some of the figures.
The Buddha himself does not appear in any of these
narratives. His presence is indicated by aniconic sym-
bols, such as his footprints, an empty seat beneath the
bodhi tree under which he became enlightened, the
dharmacakraor Wheel of the Dharma that he set in
motion, or a parasol over a horse with no rider to in-
dicate that he left his princely home. Some consider
these aniconic images to be representations of shrines
or pilgrimage sites, and therefore not merely symbols
of the Buddha’s person. Images of the Buddha are not
used until the Kushan period in the north and the late
second century C.E. in south India.
The Great Stupa at SAN
CI, first erected during
As ́oka’s reign, was completed and elaborated around
the beginning of the first century C.E. with railings,
balustrades, and gates covered with narrative relief
carvings. Reliefs of city scenes describe the sophisti-
cated urban culture of ancient India. Probably because
many of the relief panels were sponsored by a guild of
ivory carvers, the scenes emulate the precise density of
small-scale reliefs. The natural liveliness of these carv-
ings shows a significant change from the geometric
style used at Bharhut. Impressive scenes abound on the
elaborate gateways that narrate the life of the BuddhaINDIA, BUDDHISTART IN