Elements of Buddhist Iconography c4.62

c4.62

We must now consider the representation of the Buddhas as Dharmacakra, Word-wheel (and World-wheel), or Wheel of the Law or Norm, of which early Buddhist art affords so many examples, amongst which the most famous is that wheel which was set up by Aśoka in the Deer Park at Benares on the site of the prathamadeśanā, “First Preaching,” which was also the dharmacakra pravartana, “First turning of the Wheel of the Word.” 54 The pre- and non-Buddhist meanings of the symbol must be studied. What the Wheel stands for in Indian symbolism is primarily the Revolution of the Year, as Father Time (Prajāpati, Kāla), the flowing tide of all begotten things (Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, II, 17), dependent on the Sun (Maitri Up., VI, 14–16). In Ṛg Veda, I, 164, 2, 11, 13, 14, and 48, the one wheel of the Sun’s chariot has twelve or five spokes (months or seasons), or 360 spokes (days), axle (akṣa), and triple nave (nābhi); it is a revolving wheel of life (amṛta) undecaying (ajara), therein insist (tasthuḥ) the several worlds (viśvā bhuvanāni): ibid., I, 155, 6, “He (Viṣṇu) by the names of the four (seasons) has set in motion the rounded wheel that is furnished with ninety steeds” (the ninety days in each quarter of the solar Year); similarly, Atharva Veda, X, 8, 4–7, and Śvetāśvatara Up., I, 4 (brahma-cakra in I, 6, and VI, 1); in the Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇa, XX, 1, “the Year (elsewhere identified with Prajāpati) is a revolving Wheel of the Angels, that is undying; therein is the sixfold proper food (i. e. means of existence) . . . thereon the Angels move round all the worlds.” 55 In the sense that Time is the Sun, a circle is its centre, the Wheel represents the Sun, but more exactly the movement of the Sun, in his heavenly car, with one or two correlated wheels. The Sun or Solar Wheel is constantly spoken of as “revolving” or as being revolved, with use of root vṛt as in the Buddhist pavattana, pravartana: e. g. I, 35, 2, where Savitṛ is vartamānaḥ; I, 155, 6, cakram . . . avīvipat; II, 11, 20, avartayat sūryo na cakram; V, 30, 8, aśmānaṁ cit svaryaṁ vartamānām; VII, 63, 2, samānaṁ cakraṁ pary āvivṛtsan.