Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c4.55

c4.55

**Monumental Evidence.** The Buddhist tradition as well as the Jain tradition connecting the peacock, *Mayūra*, with the Moriya or Maurya dynasty receives a curious confirmation in striking monumental evidence. The Asoka pillar at Nandangarh has been found to bear at its bottom below the surface of the ground the figure of a peacock, while the same figure is repeated in several sculptures on the Great Stūpa at Sānchi, which are associated with Asoka on the basis of the stories of his life which these sculptures translate into stone. Both Foucher and Sir John Marshall agree with Grünwedel who was the first to suggest that this representation of the peacock was due to the fact that the peacock was the dynastic emblem of the Mauryas.