Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s38.56

c11.s38.56

And now one word on the legendary feature of the mountain being cut to make way for the wheel to roll across. This is obviously an echo of the mythology centring round the concept of the Chakravartin, the universal emperor, one of whose paraphernalia (*ratnas*) is the *chakra* (discus) ; this *chakra* leads the way in his *digvijaya* and has many mysterious properties, and Aśoka was counted as one of such emperors as the *Mahāvamsa* and other Buddhist books show. It is significant that in most of the references to the wheel cited above, it is not clear if the wheel of the war-chariots or the symbol of empire is meant, though once Māmūlanār definitely says it was the former. This feature in any event cannot be treated as history.