Description
The Pillars of Ashoka, also known as the Ashoka Pillars, are a series of columns scattered across India. As the name suggests, they were constructed by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka during his reign in the 3rd century BC. According to historians, there may have been numerous pillars but today, only nineteen have survived time. There are theories that suggest that some of them may have been dragged, maybe even hundreds of miles, to the spot where they were to be erected. Most have been inscribed with edicts and average around forty to fifty feet in height.
The most famous of all pillars is the Lion Capital of Sarnath. It consists of four lions sitting on their hind legs with their backs touching each others. They, therefore, face four different directions. The Lion Capital was adopted as India’s National Emblem in 1950. The chakra (wheel) underneath the capital was placed at the center of the revised version of India’s flag, which originally had a charkha (spinning wheel) in the center of the white horizontal strip, as an ode to Mahatma Gandhi.
Reviews
To write a review, you must login first.