Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c8.s1.27

c8.s1.27

*Yūpa*, the pillar of sacrifice, typified the *Axis Mundi*, the cosmos being a *Yajña*. The sacrificial stake is the World-Pillar (*Skambha*); the Divyāvadāna speaks of a *Yūpa* as the sign of *Dharma* (*Dharma-chihna*), which is the same as *Dharma-stambha*, a pillar with a *Chakra* on its summit like the Sarnath Capital, which reminds of a *Chakravartī* king firm in his duty or *Dharma*, or piety, morality and law. In the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa the portion of *Yūpa* inside the ground is said to belong to the Asuras, that up to the rope (*Raśanā*) to men, up to the ring (*Chashāla*) to the Gods and above it the *Deva-sadana* to the highest Sādhya-Devas. This tallies with the four-fold division of a *Stūpa* which constituted the rendering of the idea of *Yūpa* in a different form. The *Deva-sadana* portion was the same as *Harmikā*, the abode of gods or their seat in the highest heaven.