Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c7.s6.6

c7.s6.6

The first part is clearly a shaft, tapering from bottom to the top. In some examples this *Yashti* portion is tall and slender (as in Marshall, 103. 18) and in others heavy and stunted. On the top of the shaft is a transverse bar in several examples, (Marshall 102. c) similar to that of the traingle-headed standard on the Punch-marked coins, which feature points to its being rooted in the trident, or trinitarian Tryambaka symbolism. The abacus supports a half-round bowl-like object marked on some examples on the outside with circlets or pimples, or a bejewelled bowl (*Vasudhāna Uru-kośa*, AV. 11. 2. 11) having filaments rising from its mouth (Marshall, 104. 38, a specimen complete with the tapering shaft, transverse bar, circlets on the bowl each with a pellet in the centre, filaments and the top-most railing).