Maurya and Shunga Art c6.3

c6.3

It has been suggested on an eighth century Sinhalese parallel that these crowning animals—elephant, horse (?), bull and lion—should be considered as guardians of the four cardinal points.³⁹ It is doubtful if this interpretation can with equal force be given to the Asokan animal capitals. Nor can it definitely be said they are all even exclusively Buddhist symbols. Except the horse, the three other animals as well as the Garuda that is assumed to have once crowned the Lauriya-Araraj pillar are symbols associated with early Brahmanical tradition and mythology, though the elephant, especially the white elephant, was considered particularly sacred in Buddha-legend as well ( cf. also the Dhauli elephant and the word ‘seto’ or the ‘white one’ at the end of the sixth Dhauli R. E. ; the phrase alluding to the white elephant below the thirteenth Girnar R. E. ; the word ‘gajatame’ or the ‘best of elephants’ and the drawing of an elephant on the north face of the Kalsi rock ). Moreover, a close study of the Rupnath and Sahasram Rock inscriptions and the seventh Pillar Edict suggests definitely that some of the pillars bearing his edicts must have been in existence before Asoka chose to have his rescripts on morality engraved on them ; they may even be pre-Asokan, and consequently may have nothing to do with Buddhism, while others were erected by Asoka himself and were his own Dharmastambhas. And lastly, it has been argued with some force that these pillars with animal capitals are but translations in stone of primitive animal standards.⁴⁰