Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c11.154
Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c11.154
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c11.154
The Dharma-Chakra on the top was known from the Vedic time as Brahma Chakra, Kāla Chakra, Bhava Chakra, and the whole cosmos was conceived in terms of the rotating wheel. This was idealised as *Dharma* of the *Chakravartī* rulers to which there is clear testimony in the *Mahāsudassana Sutta* and *Chakkavatti-Sīhanāda Sutta* of the *Dīgha Nikāya*. The seven jewels of an ideal *Chakravartī* include a *Dharma Chakra* also which he sets in motion as the most significant symbol of his righteous sovereignty. No one has ever hinted of any foreign context for the *Dharma Chakra* emblem.