Indian Antiquary Vol 09

SR No.: 032501
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 398
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1880.
afforded by the parallel figures at Bhilsa. We must now examine, on the other hand, In pl. xliii. Fig. 5, of Mr. Fergusson's work, what title the Buddhists can show to establish the wheel is ornamented on the outer edge of their claim to the worship of the wheel, as an the felly with a succession of arrow points, essential part of their own system, except in so reminding one at once of the "arrows of far as it was borrowed, in the way of an approApollo," or the blaze of the sun's rays, an addi- priation; from the earlier devisers and legitimate tion which, in the solid form, would have sadly employers of the symbol. impeded the roll of a mundane wheel. At A certain amount of confusion has been Amaravati these arrow-heads are replaced by a introduced into this enquiry by the fact that succession of tridents (pl. xcviii. fig. 7), and the the chakra or 'wheel' was not only supposed to multiplicity of the sub-divisions of the wheel represent the sun or the wheel of the sun's itself are far more suggestive of the rays of the | chariot, but it had also a worldly significance sun, than of useful wooden spokes. Again, in one of universal' sovereignty, or the kingdom of instance of the examples of the various designs the entire circle of the known world.' It is in of wheels at Sanchi, we find the spokes con this latter sense that Buddha himself is reported verted into something very like flames of fire. to have used the word, when he says "Bury me
The arrow points are still more marked and like a Chakravartti Raja,"" that is as a "king," directly indicative of their purport in the not as a saint: and, as he contemplated at the numerous instances of the representations of time, no worship of his mortal remains, so we guns on the coins, especially in the Ujjain series, may fairly infer that he did not anticipate the whose mintage locality is determined by the imaginary wheel, he merely claimed in virtue of insertion of the word Újenini, in Lat characters. his royal extraction, would be elevated into one A large number of specimens of these pieces have of the symbols of the faith he taught. been collected and figured in Journal Asiatic Burnouf, Foucaux, and other early investiSociety, of Bengal, vol. VII. plate lxi. These gators were not very clear in their discrimination examples abound in the various symbols and of the contrasted import of the term chakra, enigmatical emblems of the sun, such as the but later authorities altogether discard the local imagination delighted to associate with his claims of the legitimate Buddhists to any such various powers. The barbed arrow points, in piece of machinery as a sacred wheel. Spence these instances, start from the central wheel Hardy, while recognising the Chakrawartti 88 and project considerably beyond the felly. In universal emperor, has no such word as a one case (No. 1) we have confirmatory evidence "wheel" in his index." of the local reverence for the four-fold sun in the Mr. Beal, who has consistently rejected any repetition of that number of smaller rings, idea of the virtue of a wheel, as an aid to Budwithin each of the four circles connected by dhist faith, sums up the relative bearings of the the cross-lines of the standard swastika pattern. question in the following emphatic terms :-"]
Cunningham, Bhilsa Topes, pls. xxxi. 1, xxxii. 1. • The arrow heads are of two kinds, and are made to alternate from the rounded cutting point, depicted in Mr. Ferguson's Sanobi plate exivi, to the simple unbarbed point represented in the combats in plato Ixxviii. See alao arrows in the Rig Veda, v. i. xvi. Wilson. vol. IV. p. 26.
Fergusson, Tree and Serp. Wor., pl. xliii. fig. 5. See also Genl. Canningham, Arch. Report, vol. III. pl. XXI. B., and Col. J. Low, Transactions Royal Asiatic Society, vol. III. plate 3. .
Nos. 2, 11, 16, 26, 30, &c.
Dhammacahkkar, Dominion of the Law. The well known phrase dhammachakkah pavatleti is usually reno dered "to tarn the wheel of the law," but that this was its original meaning I consider extremely improbable. Paraftets does not mean "to turn" so much as " to set going" "to establish," &c. and chakka is probably tased in its Bense of "domain" or "dominion." It is most important to bear in mind that this famous phrase is used not of the whole period of Buddha's ministry, but only of his first sermon in which he "began" or "set on foot" his religion. AjAtasatta is reported to have said in reply to the priesta about the contemplated general council: "It is well, 1 venerable men, you may rely upon me, let mine be the
domsin of temporal anthority, yours the domain of religion."-Childers' Pali Dictionary, 1875; pub voce.
• Journal Asiatic Soc. Bengal, vol. VIII. p. 1005. Prinsep's Essays, vol. I. p. 167.
Burnouf, tom. If. pp. 808, 887-8, 416. 10 Histoire de Bouddha Sakya Muri (Paris, 1848) pp. lxii, 147, 108, &c. Le trésor de la roue divine apparaît Tana la région orientale, avec mille rais, une circonférence et un moyen, toute d'or, non fabriquée par un charron, et de la hauteur de sept talas (cap. i. p. 15). Bábu Rajendralála, in his translation of Lalita-Vistara, is decided in the opinion that "The Legend of the Chakra ratna" is no doubt an after-contrivance intended to adapt the title for a Bauddba prince," p. 28.
11 I conclude that no one has hitherto veptared to suggest the similitade of Wheels of the Lane, to the hand-revolving Buddhist praying-cylinders, or to the larger water-power mills which call nature to aid in the performance of the religious rites of entire village communities, in making the prayer-inscribed drum, attached to the water wheel, speed their devotions to heaven. See General Canningham's Ladak, 1864, p. 875. 1 Manual of Budhism, London, 1858, pp. 80, 126. See also Eastern Monarchison (1850), pp. 87, 82.