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The pillars of Ashoka are a series of monolithic pillars dispersed throughout the Indian subcontinent, erected—or at least inscribed with edicts—by the 3rd Mauryan Emperor Ashoka the Great, who reigned from c. 268 to 232 BC.
Lion Capital, Ashokan Pillar at Sarnath, c. 250 B.C.E., polished sandstone, 210 x 283 cm, Sarnath Museum, India (photo: Shyamal) The pillar reads from bottom to top. The lotus represents the murky water of the mundane world, and the four animals remind the practitioner of the unending cycle of samsara as we remain, through our ignorance and ...
The third emperor of the Mauryan dynasty, Ashoka (pronounced Ashoke), who ruled from c. 279 B.C.E. – 232 B.C.E., is widely believed to be the first leader to accept Buddhism and thus the first major patron of Buddhist art.
- Written on these pillars, intertwined in the message of Buddhist compassion, were the merits of King Ashoka.
- After samsara, the cycle, you would be reunited with Brahman the supreme being in Hinduist religion. Apparently Buddhism adopts some of the teachin...
- Greek contact with ancient India was established when Alexander the Great invaded northwest parts of India, what is now Gandhara in Pakistan. Icono...
- from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vihara In the early decades of Buddhism the wandering monks of the Sangha, dedicated to asceticism and the monas...
- Only the first three Mauryan rulers were powerful. the rest of them were not as powerful as their predecessors. After Ashoka died the empire starte...
- A Buddhist king. What happens when a powerful ruler adopts a new religion that contradicts the life into which he was born? What about when this change occurs during the height of his rule when things are pretty much going his way?
- The pillars. Ashokan pillar capital at Vaishali, Bihar, India, c. 250 B.C.E. (photo: mself, CC BY-SA 2.5) One of Ashoka’s first artistic programs was to erect the pillars that are now scattered throughout what was the Mauryan empire.
- Lotus and lion. The physical appearance of the pillars underscores the Buddhist doctrine. Most of the pillars were topped by sculptures of animals. Each pillar is also topped by an inverted lotus flower, which is the most pervasive symbol of Buddhism (a lotus flower rises from the muddy water to bloom unblemished on the surface—thus the lotus became an analogy for the Buddhist practitioner as he or she, living with the challenges of everyday life and the endless cycle of birth and rebirth, was able to achieve Enlightenment, or the knowledge of how to be released from samsara, through following the Four Noble Truths).
- The edicts. Some pillars had edicts (proclamations) inscribed upon them. The edicts were translated in the 1830s. Since the seventeenth century, 150 Ashokan edicts have been found carved into the face of rocks and cave walls as well as the pillars, all of which served to mark his kingdom, which stretched across northern India and south to below the central Deccan plateau and in areas now known as Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.
The Ashokan Pillars are a series of columns throughout the Indian subcontinent, and are among the earliest known stone sculptural monuments in India. They were built or at least inscribed by the Emperor Ashoka during his reign from 268 to 232 BC.
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The Ashokan inscriptions on the Allahabad Pillar (along with inscriptions elsewhere) were pivotal to the decipherment of the Brahmi script by The Asiatic Society's James Prinsep. It led to the rediscovery of the Mauryan emperor and the unearthing of the full extent of his empire.
