it was unfamiliar to Asoka's imported Perso-Greek or Baktrian masons. The former decorate the "bell" with the characteristic pointed petals of the flower, and indicate the stamens and seed-vessel clearly, while the latter change the shape of the seed-vessel and conventionalise the petals so that the resemblance to the lotus is almost lost. The Gandharam sculptors, equally unfamiliar with Indian symbolism, decorated the bell with acanthus leaves.
In Brahmanical symbolism the mystery of the sunrise is represented by the lotus[1] upon which Brahmā, the Creator, sits enthroned, springing from the navel of Nārāyana, the Eternal Spirit, who lies asleep at the bottom of the waters of chaos reposing in the coils of the world-serpent, Ananta, or the Milky Way (see Pl. LX, b). What this symbolism meant in Mahāyāna Buddhism is explained in the Tantra Tattva when it compares Prajnā-pāramita, Supreme Wisdom, to a lotus flower. "In the root she is all-Brahman; in stem she is all-Māyā (Illusion); in the flower she is all-world; and in the fruit all-liberation." Applying this to the pillars carved by the early Buddhist builders, who were carrying on the Indo-Aryan traditions from Vedic times, we can understand the ideas they meant to convey. The vase forming the base of the pillar stood for the cosmic waters,[2] "the all-Brahman"; the shaft was the stalk of the mystic flower—the unreality upon which the world-life was supported—the bell-shaped capital was the world itself enfolded by the petals of the sky; the fruit was moksha,
- ↑ In this case the pink lotus—the so-called sacred lotus of Egypt (Nelumbium speciosum)—Brahmā's especial flower.
- ↑ Very likely the vase originally had a practical purpose, to protect the end of a wooden post from damp or from the attacks of white ants: the symbolism of the craftsman was always based upon utilitarian purposes.
