Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c11.137

c11.137

On the head of the lions was a Mahā Dharma-Chakra fixed by a tenon in a socket in the centre of the lion-heads. It had 32 spokes but only half a dozen fragments bearing the same Mauryan polish have been preserved which allow the original wheel to be reconstructed. We have ample evidence in the various traditions of Indian art and literature that the great wheel in this position was a symbol of deep meaning standing for Brahmāṇḍa Chakra, Bhava Chakra, Kāla Chakra, Dharma Chakra, Sudarśana Chakra, etc. The Jaina art in Mathura shows several Chakra pillars and the art of Bharhut, Sanchi, Bodhagaya and Amarāvatī is full of them. In Hindu tradition the Perfect Wheel (Vṛitta Chakra) was conceived as a symbol of Viṣṇu and of the revolving Wheel of Time even in the Ṛigveda (RV. I. 155. 6, I. 164. 11-13).