Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c11.23

c11.23

The next two problems which exercised his mind were those relating to the idea which he wanted to convey and the form in which the same were to be concretised. The problem of transport, of course, was there, but tackled by his engineers with success in carrying huge monoliths of about 50 ft. to remote places from the central quarry at Chunār, where the imperial workshop for fabricating the tall shafts and capitals was situated. The smooth long shaft without basement had already been tried in the Pillared Hall of Chandragupta but the idea of crowning it with a magnificent capital was original to Aśoka. He had conceived one supreme message for his generation and for mankind, viz. the message of Dharma which had dawned on his mind out of a sincere and profound conversion. He had pondered over it deeply and discovered its many facets which he himself names as Dhamma Kāmatā, Dhamma Ghoso, Dhamma Chalana, Dhamma Niyama, Dhamma Dāna, Dhamma Paṭipati, Dhamma Maṅgala, Dhamma Vijaya, Dhamma Saṃchava, Dhamma Susūsā, Dhammānusastu, Dhammānuggaho, Dhamma Silana, etc. Underlying these multiple forms he had discovered the supreme truth that Dharma is one and indivisible and that it constitutes the Eternal Wheel of Cosmic Order which rolls on for ever in the moral, social and political spheres as Brahma Chakra, Brahmāṇḍa Chakra, Bhava Chakra, Kāla Chakra, etc. and which was essentially the same as the Mahā Dharma Chakra of the Buddha.