Ashoka

Ashoka, the great king of the Mauryan dynasty of Bihar is known to the people all over the world as the greatest preacher of the words of Lord Buddha. Ashoka at first was a powerful warrior and believed in the extension of his territory through fights. He started his journey of conquering more and more kingdoms. He was extremely successful.

But it was a very notable day when Ashoka suddenly realized that it was useless to conquer lands which involved brutal killings. He actually could not bear the sight of the river filled with blood of the innocent people and had a massive set back.

Emperor Ashoka thus became a follower of Lord Buddha and started on his way to win the hearts of the people rather than their kingdoms. He started propagating the ideals of Buddhism in and around India.

Ashoka was also known as Priyadarshi or Priyadassi. If you go to the sites where there was the Kingdom of Ashoka you will find the edicts inscribed on stone pillars. These edicts of Ashoka were established all across his kingdom.

The pillars, better known as the Ashokan pillars are always provided with the statue of one or more lions crowning a pedestal. The pedestal bears the inscriptions with symbols of wheels.

In the pillars of Ashoka:

• the lion denotes strength
• the wheel denotes the eternal nature of truth (dharma)

The wheel is also called the Dharma (or Dhamma) Chakra. The depict of lion, crowning a pedestal, along with the inscription of a wheel, has been adopted as the Official Seal of the Republic of India in the year 1947.

The wheel on the Indian National Flag is nothing but the Dharma Chakra of Ashoka.