Singh_Blog
★★★★★5.0Wrote on 13 Apr 2021
Having "National Emblem" One of the very Fine Piece of work , fine precision , now in Ruined stage
More then 2300 years old manufactured stone pillar, Now only ruined pieces ... Ticket - Compound Single Ticket for all Stupa monuments in complex Ashoka Pillar of Sanchi (near the southern gateway of the Great Sanchi Stupa) is believed to have been erected around 250 B.C. on the orders of Ashoka .Although the entire structure has not been preserved, one can see the shaft of the pillar from main Torana gateway, and the crown has been displayed in the nearby Sanchi Archaeological Museum.......... The crown of the pillar is its most attractive feature. It is adorned by four regal lions facing in four directions, with their backs to each other. The style of architecture has been hailed as Greco-Buddhist. The figure is considered to be an outstanding example of the aesthetic elegance and the exquisite structural balance characteristic of the Mauryan architecture. A representation of this figure containing the four lions has been adopted as the National Emblem of India.The lions of this Ashoka pillar probably supported a Dharmachakra, or the wheel of dharma law.................... Made of finely polished sandstone, the pillar has an Ashokan inscription and an inscription in the ornamental Sankha Lipi from the Gupta period. The Ashokan inscription, engraved in early Brahmi characters, unfortunately is badly damaged. The Ashokan inscription said that- “ the path is prescribed both for the monks and for the nuns. As long as (my) sons and great-grandsons (shall reign ; and) as long as the Moon and the Sun (shall endure), the monk or nun who shall cause divisions in the Sangha, shall be compelled to put on white robes and to reside apart. For what is my desire? That the Sangha may be united and may long endureâ€â€ The pillar, when intact, was about 13 meters (42 feet) in height and consisted of round and slightly tapering monolithic shaft, with bell-shaped capital surmounted by an abacus and a crowning ornament of four lions. The abacus is adorned with four flame palmette designs separated one from the other by pairs of geese, symbolical perhaps of the flock of the Buddha's disciples. The lions are now quite disfigured. The sandstone out of which the pillar is carved came from the quarries of Chunar several hundred miles away, implying that the builders were able to transport a block of stone over forty feet in length and weighing almost as many tons over such a distance. They probably used water transport, using rafts during the rainy season up until the Ganges, Jumna and Betwa rivers.
