Railing pillar medallion: veneration of the Dharma-wheel (dharmacakra)
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.The Dharma-wheel, the symbol of the Buddha’s teachings—here celebrated as a gift by its donors—has been central to Buddhist practice from its beginnings. The Lalitavistara, an early Sanskrit text recounting the life of the Buddha, describes its veneration: “It was an exquisite wheel adorned with all kinds of jewels. . . . It had a hub, a rim, and a thousand spokes. It was adorned with flower garlands, lattices of gold, tassels with bells[, and] various marks of auspiciousness, beautifully wrapped in divine fabrics and dyed in different colors. It was strewn with flowers of the heavens . . . and rubbed with perfumed ointments” (translated by the Dharma-chakra Translation Committee).
Artwork Details
- Title: Railing pillar medallion: veneration of the Dharma-wheel (dharmacakra)
- Period: Shunga
- Date: ca. 150–100 BCE
- Culture: India, Bharhut Great Stupa, Madhya Pradesh
- Medium: Sandstone
- Dimensions: H. 24 in. (61 cm); W. 20 1/16 in. (51 cm); D. 5 1/2 in. (14 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Lent by Indian Museum, Kolkata
- Rights and Reproduction: Photo by Theirry Ollivier
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art