Answer in one word
Answers
Answer and Explanation:
1. State emblem signifies a symbolic object as a distinctive badge of a nation, which creates a visual representation of that country. Our country also has a state emblem which has been adopted on 26thJanuary, 1950 from the Lion Capital of Ashoka (250 BCE), which is preserved in the Sarnath Museum at Sarnath, Varanasi.
2. Dinanath Bhargava, who died at the age of 89 in Indore, is the man who sketched and illuminated India's national emblem, the Lion Capital of Ashoka. His work also adorns the front pages of the original manuscript of the Indian Constitution.
3. In the emblem finally adopted, only three lions are visible, the fourth being hidden from view. The wheel appears in relief in the centre of the abacus, with a bull on the right and a galloping horse on the left, and outlines of Dharma Chakras on the extreme right and left. A horse and a bull are represented right below the abacus. The bull represents hard work and steadfastness, while the horse represents loyalty, speed, and energy. The bell-shaped lotus beneath the abacus has been omitted.
4. The top of the column—the capital—has three parts. First, a base of a lotus flower, the most ubiquitous symbol of Buddhism.
Then, a drum on which four animals are carved representing the four cardinal directions: a horse (west), an ox (east), an elephant (south), and a lion (north). They also represent the four rivers that leave Lake Anavatapta and enter the world as the four major rivers. Each of the animals can also be identified by each of the four perils of samsara. The moving animals follow one another endlessly turning the wheel of existence.
Four lions stand atop the drum, each facing in the four cardinal directions. Their mouths are open roaring or spreading the dharma, the Four Noble Truths, across the land. The lion references the Buddha, formerly Shakyamuni, a member of the Shakya (lion) clan. The lion is also a symbol of royalty and leadership and may also represent the Buddhist king Ashoka who ordered these columns. A chakra (wheel) was originally mounted above the lions.
Some of the lion capitals that survive have a row of geese carved below the lions. The goose is an ancient Vedic symbol (Veda means knowledge in Sanskrit and the Vedas refers to the canonical collection of hymns, prayers and liturgical formulas that make up the earliest of the Hindu sacred writings. Many of the Buddhist symbols and practices derive from these early texts). The flight of the goose is thought of as a link between the earthly and heavenly spheres.
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 fear, stuck in the material world. But the cakras (wheels) between them offer the promise of the Eightfold Path, that guide one to the unmoving center at the hub of the wheel. Note that in these particular cakras, the number of spokes in the wheel (eight for the Eightfold Path), had not yet been standardized.
The lions are the Buddha himself from whom the knowledge of release from samsara is possible. And the cakra that once stood at the apex represents moksa, the release from samsara. The symbolism of moving up the column toward Enlightenment parallels the way in which the practitioner meditates on the stupa in order to attain the same goal.