Elements of Buddhist Iconography c4.68

c4.68

We considered above mainly the case in which the cosmic wheel is thought of as single. Perhaps more often the chariot of the Sun is thought of as running on twin wheels connected by a common axle-tree (*akṣa*), and this involves a consideration of the world from two distinct but inseparable points of view (*cf. Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*, VIII, 2, cited above, p. 20). As the Sun shines equally for angels and for men (*Ṛg Veda*, I, 50, 5, etc.), so of the twin wheels of his chariot one touches Heaven, the other Earth (*Ṛg Veda*, I, 30, 19, and X, 85, 18); and their common axle-tree is identified with the axis of the universe that holds apart (*vitaram, viṣvak*) Heaven and Earth (*Ṛg Veda*, V, 29, 4, and X, 89, 4). Or again, when the chariot of the Sun is thought of as three-wheeled (*tricakra*), *Ṛg Veda*, X, 85, two of the wheels are identified as aforesaid with Heaven and Earth (“one looks down upon the several worlds, the other ordains the seasons and is born again,” cf. I, 164, 44 and 32), and these “proceed by magic,” *māyayā caranti*; but the third is hidden (*guhā = guhāyāṃ nihitam*, sc. “in the heart”), and only the adepts (*adhātayaḥ*) are Comprehensors (*viduḥ*) thereof. This third wheel evidently corresponds to the “secret name,” *nāma guhyam*, of X, 55, 1, and the “third light” of X, 56, 1. These doctrines of three wheels, three lights, etc., are tantamount to the *trikāya* doctrine in Buddhism.⁶⁴