Meaning of the Elements of Ashokan Pillars and How They Were Influenced by Western Civilization

Understanding the Message of Ashokan Pillars

The interpretation of the elements of Ashokan pillars is vastly debated. Only very few of those pillars were mentioned in accounts of the ancient and medieval travelers. Hence, there is no strong evidence present to support one theory. Some scholars also raised questions about his monarchy after the war of Kalinga, whereas some strongly believed in his governmental duties. Authors like, James M. Macphail represented a neutral interpretation about his acts. “Whether or not he accomplished the difficult task of combining the duties and reconciling the claims of Monarch and Monk, there is no possible doubt that he was at once Monarch and Missionary” (Macphail 1928, p. 43).

However, it is also a fact that the symbolic representation of his pillars was something beyond the religious persuasion. He never mentioned anything about the Buddhist creed in his inscriptions, though some of the pillars were created at the sites, which were directly related with the life of his lord Buddha. In those cases, he only expressed his respect towards Buddha through his words, although mostly his inscriptions described about monarchal injunctions. When I look closely at his pillars, it seems like a royal column portraying the message of peace. The huge shaft has no decoration of war, as in previously discussed Roman columns.

It was probably because of the intention of the king Ashoka was to represent the simplicity of life. There is no doubt that the length of the pillars was depicting the journey towards the heaven, as same as the Greek and Roman columns. The shape of the structures, which is broad to narrow from the base to the top, is probably depicting the desire of life, which narrows down with the age of a person.

Then the first part of the capital, the inverted lotus, which is a very significant element in Indian art and architecture, usually is the representation of universality. The ancient Indian texts described these central lotus forms in art as ‘Viswapadma’, which means the lotus of the universe. The first representation of the lotus in India was found from the Indus Valley Civilization, dated c.2500 B.C. The next step of the capital is the abacus, which comprises four different animals, bull, horse, lion and elephant. All of them represented in moving forms and placed in between the Dharama Chakras or the wheels of law. Some of the capitals also consists the flying geese.

All of these depicted animals by Ashoka, had been worshipped as celestial royal symbols, since long before Ashoka. In the seals and amulets of Indus Valley Civilization, vast number of bull and elephant figures had been found. Since Vedas the goose considered as the Sun God himself. The trace of worshipping horse by royal families had been found in Mahabharata. The motion of these animals in Ashokan pillars, maybe the depiction of continuity.

Lastly, the most top portion of the pillars, the statue of the animals, as we can find in some other even older cultures of the world, lion is the most dominating figure for commemoration of royal events. Some scholars described that, the lions in Ashokan pillars symbolize the king himself as a knowledgeable and powerful emperor. The ever opened mouth of the lion is indicating the emperor in preaching mode and in some pillars the four lions sitting by facing to the four diagonal directions (see fig. 8), is probably the king from the peak, observing his empire from all the directions. However, some historians considered these lion figures as Lord Buddha with the same functions. But according to the stylistic features of the lions, it is perhaps carrying more salience of vigor than the reticence of monk.

The other capitals of bull and elephant were found only one of each, also in a very fragile stage. There was no inscription in these pillars and also most of the authors remained silent to describe the symbolism of these two pillars. The figure of bull is still visible, which was discovered from the Indian region of Rampurva, currently located in Presidential Palace of Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi; but the elephant capital was found already in an extreme brittle stage. However, there is no evidence of human figures in Ashokan pillars. Perhaps, the king merely wished to imprint the aphorism in opposition of extravagance and acquisitiveness, thus he used only universal symbols to commemorate his after war regret.

Western Influence in the Artistry

The first ever Indian memorials (Ashokan pillars), as well as later Indian arts, were highly influenced by Hellenistic art and architecture mainly due to two reasons. Firstly the matrimonial relationships between Mauryan kings and Greek princesses and the periodical campaigns to India by Alexander the Great until his death. But there is a big debate among the scholars regarding the usage lotus flower in the reliefs and the capitals of the pillars.

Some believe that the idea of lotus derived from Hellenistic art, whereas some of the experts determined about its Indian origin as the lotus motifs were discovered in large number since 2500 B.C. from Indian soil. However it is true that no symbol of lions have been discovered from Indus Valley Civilization. So there is very less doubt about this matter that the lion had emerged to Indian art from the western influence.

The Assyrian relief from c. 7th century B.C. the depiction of the king Ashurbanipal, fighting with a lion (see fig. 9), here the purpose of using lion is completely different from those of Ashokan. But the physical feature of the Assyrian lion has a good amount of similarities with the lion of Ashokan pillars. Though not decorated and later in time, but the structure of the shaft of the pillars contains resemblance with the ancient roman columns. In fact, the character of Ashoka was also compared with the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius many times by the historians. “…among European rulers, with Marcus Aurelius for some things… that he deserves to be compared” (Davids, 1911, p. 307).

The rest of the two capitals of bull and elephant could not take their places in these historical comparisons. As bull is absent in ancient western war memorials, it is probably the influence of the ancient Indus civilization. In Indus Valley Civilization’s artifacts these two animals were discovered in a very extensive number. Even since before this civilization, bull had been associated with Hindu god Shiva . As already mentioned the fact of worshipping Shiva by the king Ashoka in his early life, probably he followed the same manner of using bull and elephant in his art.