The Lion Capital Pillar of Sarnath: The Production of an Ancient Sacred Monument and Its Symbolic Meanings

… the Church is [not] by anyone to be divided. But whosoever, monk or nun, shall break up the Church, shall be made to don white robes and made to dwell in another dwelling. Thus should this command brought to nigh in the order of monks and in the order of nuns. Thus said his sacred Majesty (qtd. in Jayaswal 241).

These lines are part of an edict inscribed in Brahmi, by the Mauryan emperor, Ashoka, on the shaft of the lion capital pillar at Sarnath, the sacred Buddhist landscape located north of the Ganga as it flows past Varanasi, where Gautama Buddha delivered his first sermon and established the first sangha. The portion of the edict that was found undamaged, bore this royal decree.

Fig 1: A copy of the Ashokan inscription on the shaft of the lion capital in Sarnath

Ashoka (c. 269–232 BCE), referred to as a Buddhist king par excellence in the Mahavamsa written in Sri Lanka (Ray 45), was the first major patron of Buddhist art. Judging from extant material remains, Buddhism was the earliest Indian religion to have inspired major artistic monuments and an efficient monastic organisation in the subcontinent (Mitter 13). Ashoka succeeded his grandfather Chandragupta Maurya (322–297 BCE) who had brought all of North India under his control and established the Mauryan empire. It is a story oft told that after his conquest of Kalinga (modern day Odisha), horrified by the carnage, Ashoka became a pacifist and embraced Buddhism. To spread the message of Buddhism’s code of behaviour (dharma), he inscribed messages on rock faces and stone pillars in public spaces throughout his empire. These royal edicts shed significant light on the social, religious and administrative systems of Mauryan times. Ashoka set up at least twenty pillars that extend from Nepal, Bihar, Sarnath and Meerut in the north, to Sanchi in central India. The pillars, varying in height from forty to fifty feet, possibly symbolise the axis mundi or the cosmic pillar and make symbolic use of flora and fauna. In this essay it is my endeavour to chronicle the process of the making of the pillar with the lion capital at Sarnath, identify the purpose of the edict it bore and what the motifs on the lion capital signify.

Archaeological excavations at Sarnath between 1904–07 collected most of the components of the Ashokan pillar that had lain scattered around the site and indicate that it was the first monument to be built there (Ray 24). The then Director-General of the ASI, Sir John Marshall wrote:

At the short distance to the west of the shrine were found the stump and fragments of a large round column. First the lion capital was exhumed close to the western wall of the shrine, next some fragments of the shaft, and lastly, the stump of the column in situ, protruding slightly above the concrete terrace. On clearing the debris from above the stump, I noticed a few letters in early characters. The concrete was broken through and a long inscription exposed to view, which later examination proved to be an Asoka edict (qtd. in Jayaswal 236).

Fig. 2: The Lion Capital on the ground at Sarnath, probably 1904–05

An apsidal structure identified as a monastery that was unearthed near the pillar appears to have been built sometime in the late Mauryan period (circa third — second century BCE). The inscribed pillar, which bore the epigraph on norms to be followed by Buddhist monks and nuns, was erected in front of this. It follows logically that the two structures were connected to each other and that the edict was meant for the monks and nuns who inhabited the monastery which later fell into disuse by the seventh century (Jayaswal 241).

Archaeological studies of the Chunar region near Varanasi as well as geological comparisons of the lithographic composition of the Chunar quarries with a fragment of the Ashokan pillar have left no doubt that the Chunar region yielded the stones used for Ashokan pillars that stand on the Middle Ganga Plains (Jayaswal 244).

Once detached from the parent bed, the stone blocks were chiseled into cylindrical forms convenient for rolling down the hills that were without prominent ridges and depressions. At the Durga Khoh rock shelters in Chunar, engravings of elephants tied with chains suggest that the animals possibly facilitated surface transportation of the stones till they reached the river Ganga. Thereafter they were transported on wooden rafts as evidence of submerged blocks suggests (Jayaswal 247).

Quarrying operations at Chunar appear to have started during Ashoka’s times as the earliest dated epigraphs engraved both in Brahmi and Kharoshti in these quarries are from this period (Jayaswal 247). The presence of Kharoshti inscriptions is significant because it is well known that the Kharoshti script was used only in the northwestern part of the subcontinent. Ashoka used Brahmi in other regions (Jayaswal 255). This indicated that some of the persons involved in the quarrying used the Kharoshti script and were foreigners.

Before Ashoka there was no evidence of using stone for art and building in the Ganga valley with the exception of recent findings at the Harappan site, Dholavira. “On the other hand there was [a] long history of working on stone for building purpose[s] in the neighboring western countries, particularly in Iran” (Qtd. in Jayaswal 256). In Persepolis there was evidence of both Persian columns with animal capitals, as well as imperial rock edicts. Taking all this into account it is perhaps reasonable to conclude that Ashoka might have invited some experts from the west who worked with local craftsmen under a centralised patronage.

Ashokan pillars are generally constituted of two parts: the tall, lustrously polished and tapering stone shaft, and the capital. Observations suggest that the shaft at Sarnath is not monolithic but is formed by joining together several blocks of sandstone. A coat of crushed sandstone with hematite was used to hide the joints and gave the shaft the appearance of a monolith (Jayaswal 254). According to literature, Mauryan artisan guilds were engaged for Ashoka’s projects. However, according to the scholar Vincent Smith, the high polish of the Ashokan pillars and their capitals suggest that Iranian carvers came to Ashoka’s cosmopolitan empire in search of work (Mitter 14). As noted earlier, the presence of Kharoshti inscriptions on the quarried stones supports this theory. The majestic carvings and involvement of craftsmen from distant lands could only be afforded by royal patronage which is proclaimed atop the pillar where four majestic Asiatic lions roar out at the four cardinal directions.

The lion capital, which now rests at the Archaeological Museum Sarnath, has three parts though originally it would have had four: an inverted, bell-shaped lotus as a base; on it, an abacus animated by a horse, bull, elephant and lion with the dharmachakra between each of them; the four Asiatic lions atop this abacus, and finally, the dharmachakra at the pinnacle. Each of these elements have deep symbolical meanings.

Fig. 3: The lion capital at the Archaeological Museum Sarnath

Ananda Coomaraswamy writes, “In the art of India, every form is the symbol of a clear and conscious thought and of consciously directed feeling” (qtd. in Pal 39). Of the motifs described above, the lotus is the most ubiquitous symbol. From being the principal attribute of the goddess Lakshmi, it migrated to the seat of the Buddha by the second century BCE. The lotus grows in mud but is untouched by it; it rests on water and yet, is not wetted by it. Hence it is a symbol of one who lives in the world but remains untouched by its sorrows. The Buddha himself used the analogy to describe an enlightened being (Pal 39).

The wheel too is a symbol of universal significance. The Buddha is said to have set the wheel of law (dharmachakra) in motion through his first sermon at Sarnath, and on the abacus, we see four animals that symbolize strength, power, fortune and prowess signaling the realm of samsara while the wheels or chakras between them hold the promise of the eightfold path. Atop the abacus sit the four Asiatic lions in their imperial grandeur, proclaiming the might of the empire. Perhaps they represent the Shakya or lion clan that the Buddha (Shakyamuni) belonged to, spreading his message in the four cardinal directions. Vidya Dehejia who discerns a multiplicity of meanings in early Buddhist art suggests that symbols may be interpreted in various ways depending on the context in which they are presented. Emblems, which may be aniconic presentations of the Buddha may also be seen as attributes of faith. The wheel-crowned pillar represents his sacred doctrine, the dharmachakra (Dehejia 45). The use of the chakra symbol was borrowed from the idea of chakravartin or universal monarch: one who literally turns the wheel (chakra), presumably of a chariot, as he conquers the world. The conquests of the Buddha, the dharmachakravartin, however, were spiritual, and the wheel came to symbolize the Buddha’s teachings. It is the embodiment of the word set in motion by the Buddha (Pal 42) and in this instance of culmination at the top of the pillar, perhaps moksha.

This ancient treasure, invested with eloquent symbols and philosophical values was adopted as the emblem of our newly-birthed republic in 1950 and can be considered a symbol “applying not only to the life of the individual, but to the history of society and the course of the cosmos” (Zimmer 13).

Works Cited:

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. 1928.

Dehejia, Vidya. “Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems.” Ars Orientalis 21. Freer Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian Institution and Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan, 1991.

Gordard, A. The Art of Iran (Translated from the French by Michael Hero). London: 1965.

Jayaswal, Vidula. “Mauryan Pillars of the Middle Ganga Plain.” Reimagining Asoka Memory and History, edited by Patrick Olivelle, Janice Leoshko, Himanshu Prabha Ray, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Marshall, J. ‘Excavations at Sarnath.’ Archaeological Survey of India Annual Report 1904–5. Delhi: Swati Publications, 1990 (reprint).

Mitter, Partha. Indian Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Pal, Pratapaditya. “Symbols and Myths.” Indian Sculpture, Vol. 1. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: Los Angeles County Museum of Art in association with University of California Press, 1986.

Ray, Himanshu Prabha. Archaeology and Buddhism in South Asia. Abingdon, New York: Routledge, 2018.

Sahni, D.R. Catalogue of the Museum of Archaeology at Sarnath. Delhi: Indological Book House, 1972 (reprint).

Shelby, Karen. “Lion Capital, Ashokan Pillar at Sarnath.” www.smarthistory.org/lion-capital-ashokan-pillar-at-sarnath/. Accessed 30 October 2020.

Zimmer, Heinrich. Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, edited by Joseph Campbell, Washington D.C.: Bollingen Foundation and Princeton University Press, 1946.

Images Cited:

Fig 1. Jayaswal, Vidula. “Mauryan Pillars of the Middle Ganga Plain.” Reimagining Asoka Memory and History, edited by Patrick Olivelle, Janice Leoshko, Himanshu Prabha Ray, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Fig 2. Smith, Vincent Arthur and Archaeological Survey, Mysore. A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, 1911.

Fig 3. Image courtesy of Wikipedia

This article was first written by Rukminee Guha Thakurta towards the fulfilment of the Indian Aesthetics Diploma at Jnanapravaha, Mumbai, in October 2020.