The Ashoka Pillar: part of our cultural heritage

Our national emblem, which we inherited as Emperor Ashoka's legacy, is itself part of our cultural heritage. At Sarnath, where Gautama Buddha first lit up the world with the light of his wisdom, Emperor Ashoka installed an inscription and this emblem. It was from here that the symbol was adopted as the national emblem. It not only keeps alive the memory of Emperor Ashoka and the teachings of the Buddha; it also reflects our boundless cultural heritage.

Although we have no record of exactly when during Ashoka's reign the emblem was made and came into use, it is certain that it is associated with him, and it is possible that it was in use even earlier. This is suggested by the deep meanings embedded in it, which display the highest summit of knowledge.

The practice of expressing ideas and feelings in symbolic language, through signs and pictures, is very ancient, and the same symbolism is reflected in Ashoka's emblem. At a glance one would say that the lions stand for strength and pride; that on the base the horse stands for energy and motion and the bull for hard work and patience; and that the wheel between them represents dharma. But the emblem's deeper meaning becomes clear from a study of the Rigveda, regarded as the oldest text of human civilisation, whose language is also symbolic. Put briefly, the emblem depicts the continuity of creation, life, and the control over it of one fundamental, supreme primordial energy.

The question of creation in the Rigveda

Whether the creation of the universe and life on earth has any purpose has always been a natural curiosity of humankind. Even in today's scientific age we are as curious about it as we were thousands of years ago when the Vedas came into being. Questions about creation are raised in the tenth mandala of the Rigveda, and an attempt is made to answer them reasonably according to the knowledge of the time. Finally, acknowledging the limits of that knowledge, it says: "Whence this creation arose, whether it has any foundation or not, only He who pervades all of space knows, or perhaps even He does not know" (Rigveda 10.129.7). In other words, it is made clear that creation has been described only as far as our knowledge reaches.

The process of creation is described in the Nasadiya Sukta. In the ancient view, the world came about as a natural origination. The forces of nature through which creation happens were regarded as divine, and it was said that all the gods together brought the world into being. As knowledge grew, the Nasadiya Sukta described the world as developing gradually from a fundamental supreme primordial energy, with the forces of nature as its causes and helpers. This fundamental energy was given the names Supreme Purusha, Vishwakarma, Prajapati and Hiranyagarbha; the Upanishads call it Parabrahman or the World-Soul.

The Purusha Sukta and the primordial energy

The Purusha Sukta calls this fundamental energy the Supreme Purusha, "sahasrashirsha purushah" (10.90.1): thousand-headed, thousand-eyed and thousand-footed, signifying that it is present everywhere. The same hymn goes on to say that, enveloping all of creation, it dwells in a space ten fingers wide in the human body, that is, in the cave of the heart. This Purusha is the world itself, what was and what will be (Rigveda 10.90.2). One quarter of this Purusha is the visible world, the beings of the mortal realm, and three quarters are the invisible realm of the immortals in heaven (10.90.3).

That is, the creation we see is only a quarter of it, while three quarters belong to the invisible world and surround all of nature. Describing the origin of the cosmos from this Supreme Purusha, the hymn holds that the divine forces of nature expand the sacrifice of creation using the material for building the world that the Purusha provides. All the ceaseless actions and reactions in creation are presented as this cosmic sacrifice. By tracing the origin of the universe and its components to the different limbs of the Purusha, the hymn shows the correspondence between the human body and the cosmos.

What the lions, horse, cow and wheel signify

The Ashoka emblem expresses this as follows. Its four lions, and the four lion legs seen from the front, represent the four parts of the supreme primordial energy. From any direction one sees only three lion faces and four legs. This suggests that three of the four parts of this energy rise up and dwell in the heavens. Expressing the energy through the lion declares it all-powerful. The animals and the wheel on the base beneath the lions symbolise the one part of this energy that belongs to the visible world. The horse and the cow carved there represent the living world while also expressing the primordial energy and nature.

From it were born horses, and all animals with two rows of teeth; from it were born cows, and from it goats and sheep.

— Rigveda 10.90.10

This verse points to the birth of the living world from the primordial energy: from it come horses and animals with teeth in both upper and lower jaws; from it come cows, and goats and vegetation too. Here "ajavayah" (aja-avayah) appears to mean goats and vegetation. The Veda broadly regards five animals as important: purusha (human), ashva (horse), go (cow) and aja (goat) are the well-known names, while avi is the name of the animal life-force that makes plants self-nourishing. In short, the Ashoka emblem represents the living world through the horse and the cow.

Its second significance is that, according to Vedic knowledge, creation is described as arising from the union of Prakriti and Purusha. Nature unites with the Supreme Purusha (the primordial energy) to form its various forces and components, and so comes into existence. To express this generative union the emblem uses the horse and the cow. The energetic, moving form of the primordial energy is expressed through the horse, while on the other side of the wheel the cow expresses nature and its motherly power of nourishment. Creation is the joint work of the fundamental energy and nature, functioning as the wheel of the earth, and this wheel of creation is carved at the centre in the form of the chakra.

Creation is an ecosystem, and this ecosystem is governed by the supreme primordial energy. This truth is expressed in the Rigveda's knowledge of creation.

May he, like the sun, turn the wide spaces round as a charioteer turns the wheels; with his radiance he has struck down the black darkness that stood still, as it were, and would not move.

— Rigveda 10.89.2

Agni, Indra, Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman, Vayu, Pushan, Sarasvati, acting together; the Adityas, Vishnu, the Maruts, the lofty heaven, Soma, Rudra, Aditi and Brahmanaspati.

— Rigveda 10.65.1

Gist: Agni and the others, the Adityas, the great heaven and Soma, these gods act together in unison.

Agni (fire), Indra (lightning), Varuna (water), Mitra (food), Aryaman (the sun), Vayu (air).