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The Mauryan Polity c11.s3.t6: Animal capitals

The Mauryan Polity c11.s3.t6

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Animal capitals

c11.s3.t6.1

To a student of Aśoka’s religion the animal capitals are far more important than the pillars themselves. Discussing this, V. A. Smith arrives at the following results:

c11.s3.t6.2

| 9 | examples | of lion. |
| 2 | ,, | of elephant. |
| 2 | ,, | of bull. |
| 1 | ,, | of horse. |
| 1 | ,, | of wheel. |
| 1 | ,, | of Garuḍa. |
| 1 | ,, | of man. |
| 2 | ,, | of four lions back to back. |

c11.s3.t6.3

Of these the lion, the elephant, the bull and the horse are explained as the riding animals of the guardian deities of the four quarters. These are Vaiśravaṇa, or Kubera with the lion on the north; Dhṛtarāṣṭra with the elephant on the east, Virūḍha with horse on the south and Virūpākṣa with the bull on the west.¹

c11.s3.t6.4

¹ Z.D.M.G., Vol. LXV, pp. 221-240.

c11.s3.t6.5

From these Mr. Smith formulates the theory of the universality of the church, ‘the congregation from the four quarters, present and absent’, adding that the number four has some mystic significance, and that the selection of the symbol was influenced in some cases by the origin of monks. There is nothing impossible in that some of these animals are the vāhanas of the guardians of the four quarters, or the dikpālas of Sanskrit literature.² There is no mystic significance about the number four, as more than four riding animals crown the various capitals of these pillars. In the light of the references occurring in the Vedic literature about these animals, it was argued that there is no foundation for the theory of the universality of the church as V. A. Smith would have it.¹ These pre-Aśokan pillars with animal capitals were pillars of victory, planted as memorials by the ancient kings of India of whom we have unfortunately no record, the images of the capital representing the emblem of their ensign, symbolical of the object of their worship.

c11.s3.t6.6

² Śabdakalpadruma, p. 709, and Mānasāra, Ch. LXII and LXIII.

c11.s3.t6.7

¹ Śabdakalpadruma, pp. 276-7.

c11.s3.t6.8

Mr. R. P. Chanda points out that the Mauryan pillars were primarily intended for worship.² Perhaps the pillar cult is as old as the chalcolithic period in the Indus valley.³ That the choice of the symbol was due to the influence exerted by the origin or nationality of the monks of an adjoining monastery, has no basis in fact. According to this assumption all the pillars in the north must possess the lion on their tops, in the east the elephant, in the south the horse, and in the west the bull. But the extant pillars do not conform to any such system. It is a historical fact that Aśoka did not erect most of them and hence was not responsible for the arrangement which we attribute to-day to him. It is therefore far from correct to say that these monuments were intended by the emperor to perpetuate the memory of the Buddha. An attempt has been made without much success to explain the symbols of the figure of a man on one of the monuments, of the Brāhmaṇi geese on the Lauṛiyā-Nandan-gaṛh pillar, and of the bell capital.⁴

c11.s3.t6.9

² Memoirs of Ar. Sur. of India, No. 34, pp. 31-33.

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³ Ibid., No. 41, p. 35.

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⁴ See A. K. Coomaraswami's article on the Origin of the Lotus (so-called Bell) capital in Ind. His. Q., Vol. VI, No. II.

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To conclude, the fact that Aśoka enlarged the stūpa sacred to Konākamana whom orthodox Buddhism would style as heretic, and also the fact that three caves were erected in the Barābar Hills for the Ājīvikas, the rival sect of the Buddhists, are sufficient to tell the true tale, viz., that the emperor had the same amount of sympathy which he had for Buddhism, for other sects as well, which were to all intents and purposes its rivals. It is quite obvious that the extant monuments eloquently voice forth the catholicity of his religious views, the most wonderful and the best relieving feature of the Hindu religion. It is not easy to believe that such ferocious animals as the lion and elephant symbolise the Buddha himself, the enlightened sage of Kapilavastu. Neither the monuments nor the animal symbolism can carry home the conviction and decide the religious leaning of this emperor to Buddhism.

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