Title: Memorial Pillars
Artist: N/A
Location: India
Culture of Origin: Maurya Dynasty
Date: 322-185 B.C.
Medium: Sandstone
Description:
Monolithic shafts topped by animal capitals. They were highly polished, even though made of sandstone. The four lions supported a huge wheel, symbolizing First Sermon (Buddha), The Turning of the Wheel of the Law. Both wheel and lions are ancient sun symbols and imply the Buddha illuminating the spiritual world as the sun illumines the physical world. The lions rest upon a circular base around which four small animals follow one another; they are a bull, an elephant, a horse and a lion. Between them are four miniature wheels repeating the form of the great wheel originally supported by the lions. Below the circular section a bell-shaped base in the form of a lotus with hanging petals makes the transition from animals to the smooth shaft of the column. The bull is the zodiacal sign under which the Buddha was born. The shaft itself symbolizes the central universal axis, which is a symbol of time and space. The four smaller wheels may well have stood for the four planets that are in conjunction with the sun at the four divisions of the year.
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