EMBLEM OF BIHAR

EMBLEM OF BIHAR

In the 16th century, the Mughal emperor Akbar annexed Bihar and Bengal. With the decline of the Mughals, Bihar passed under the control of the Nawabs of Bengal. After the Battle of Buxar in1764, the British East India Company obtained the diwani rights for Bihar, Bengal and Orissa. In 1912, the province of Bihar and Orissa was made into separate provinces. The state of Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in the year 2000. Initially Bihar used the Ashoka Capital surrounded with the title of the State as its emblem. The current emblem of Bihar shows a peepal tree rising from a socle with a text in ancient Urdu, between two swastikas. The Sacred Fig tree (Ficus religiosa - Moraceae) located in Bodh Gaya - ‘Bodhi’, also known as Bo (from the Sinhalese Bo), under which Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism is supposed to have achieved enlightenment or Bodhi. The swastikas represent Dharma, universal harmony and the balance of opposites. As such the emblem symbolizes Bihar as the cradle of Buddhism.