Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c11.158

c11.158

The fifth element is the tall shaft called Yaṣṭi, Lakuṭa, Stambha, Skambha etc. As shown above such pillars or long shafts were known and executed in wood from the Vedic times. They were known as Yūpas in Yajña but the Skambha Sūkta of the Atharyaveda goes much further that the pillar as the support of the universe enjoyed the status of a deity, all the other Devas having their support on the pillar which was ceremoniously raised aloft as the symbol of universal prosperity. That there was an established cult of the pillar, of which Indra Yaṣṭi was a form, is shown by several representations in art in which men and women are worshipping the pillar by circumambulating it.