DHARMA CHAKRA

DHARMA CHAKRA

This ‘Dharma Chakra’ or ‘Wheel of the Law’ is depicted in the in the Sarnath Lion Capital made by the third century BC Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. The ‘chakra’ or wheel intends to show that there is life in movement and death in stagnation. It is this wheel which appears in the India’s national flag. The Dharma Chakra represents ‘dharma’, the Buddha’s teaching of the path of enlightenment. It is one of the oldest known Buddhist symbols found in Indian art, appearing with the first surviving post-Harappan Indian iconography. The wheel with twenty-four spokes represents the Twelve Laws of Dependent Origination and the Twelve Laws of Dependent Termination. These spokes were thought to represent twenty-four states of India, which were present when India was formed. The Dharma Chakra is one of the eight auspicious symbols of Tibetan Buddhism.