his heraldic devices from others of more aristocratic lineage. The Indo-Aryan clan of which he was the chief had traditions at least as old as those of the Persian kings, and the craftsmen of the imperial court at Pātaliputra, whether Greeks, Persians, or Indians, would have had to adapt their ideas to these traditions. The constant recurrence of the "bell-shaped" capital in all the earliest Indian sculpture shows that it was the usual architectural form in Asoka's time; it had doubtless been carved in wood by the royal craftsmen of India for many generations previously. The reason for Asoka's preference for Persian craftsmen is disclosed in the inscription on the Sānchī column. They were highly skilled stone-masons, and Asoka desired that his edicts should remain in force "as long as my sons and great-grandsons may reign, and as long as the Moon and the Sun shall endure."
Moreover, the Bharhut and Sānchī sculptures show us that the symbolism of Asoka's pillars has nothing to do with a bell, but is an adaptation to structural purposes of the same lotus-and-vase motive which, with a different implication, served for a symbol of the Buddha's nativity. Here, however, it is the blue lotus, Vishnu's flower, which is used instead of the pink Brahmā lotus.
At the eastern gateway of Bharhut one of the Lokapālas, or Guardians of the Four Gateways of the Sky, is shown carrying the "bell-shaped" standard, surmounted not by lions, but by Garuda, the eagle of Vishnu, the Sun-god, who has for his emblem the blue lotus.
The lotus throne of the Buddha is nearly always represented in Indian art with the outer fringe of petals turned downwards, and the whole flower is frequently shown naturalistically with the petals turned down
