A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c9.s1.17

c9.s1.17

The topmost sculpture in the round was most often one or other of the four animals symbolizing respectively the four quarters of the world—namely, the elephant, the guardian of the east; the horse, of the south; the bull, of the west; and the lion, of the north. All these animals, except the horse, are actually found on extant capitals, and it is recorded that a horse once crowned the pillar at Rummindeī, the Lumbinī garden. On the sides of the abacus of the Sārnāth capital all the four creatures are carved in relief, evidently signifying that the monument, although specially connected with the north by its position and the symbolical lions, was designed to commemorate the proclamation of the Good Law to the Church of the four quarters.¹