Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.s1.5

c12.s1.5

The Buddha was but a manifestation of the powers that inhere in that universal Purusha whose symbol is Sūrya. As a scion of the solar dynasty, viz. the race of the Ikshvāku kings whose descent from Sūrya was well known, he represented an individual ray of that light which is the Divine Supernal Sun. It was, therefore, a problem for the early metaphysicians in Buddhism to fix upon an appropriate symbol to commemorate the Enlightened One. The Chakra and the Stūpa were selected as two arch symbols by the early Buddhist teachers. The Wheel or Chakra became the symbol of Dharma, i. e. the World Order of which the Buddha was an exalted exponent. The Dhamma is the foundation and support of the cosmos, and is the perfect symbol of Time which is threefold as the Chakra is called Tryadhvā, i. e. the revolving wheel of the three times (Skt. Adhvan) i. e. "present, past and future". (Edgerton, BHSD. p. 260). The Stūpa as the second symbol represents the solar light or the Sun which is the source of the power that manifests in the Dharma Chakra.