The Ashokan pillars are a series of columns found dispersed throughout the northern Indian subcontinent, erected or at least inscribed by the Mauryan king Ashoka during his reign in the 3rd century BCE. Originally there were probably many pillars, but only nineteen survive with inscriptions -- and many are just fragments. Averaging between 40/50 feet in height and weighing up to 50 tons each, all of the pillars were quarried at Chunar, just south of Varanasi.
One of the most famous of these Ashokan pillars was found in Sarnath -- famous because of the Lion Capital placed atop the pillar. While the pillar is still in its original location, the Lion Capital is now in the Sarnath Archaeological Museum. This Lion Capital has been adopted as the National Emblem of India and the wheel "Ashoka Chakra" from its base was placed onto the center of the National Flag of India.
The capital contains four lions standing back to back, mounted on an abacus with a frieze carrying sculptures of an elephant, a horse, a bull, and a lion, separated by intervening spoked chariot wheels over a bell-shaped lotus. The capital is carved out of a single block of polished sandstone.
The Ashoka Chakra is a depiction of the Buddhist Dharmachakra, represented with 24 spokes. The symbolism is that the impermanent things of life are the spokes while the spiritually permanent thing (the Truth) is the center.
I couldn't take pictures of the Lion Capital (not allowed in the museum) -- it's in amazingly good condition -- click here to see pictures published by Columbia University.
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