CENTER FOR ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY

Subject: Relief probably depicting the Ramagrama Stupa. This is a portion of a door lintel and was found east of the Main Shrine. Generally, the stupa depicted on the left of the lintel is assumed to be the one at Ramagrama, in Nepal. Wild elephants provided flowers for the Ramagrama stupa, and when Ashoka sought to open this stupa — one of the eight original stupas containing the Buddha’s remains, which he intended to divide among 84,000 stupas — he was persuaded not to do so even though he opened the other seven original stupas. The stupa at Ramagrama was guarded by a naga, a serpent divinity, who assumed the form of a Brahmin and persuaded Ashoka not to open it. The elephant to the left of the stupa bearing flowers and the serpent encircling it are probably an allusion to the Ramagrama stupa.

Subject: Coping stone, detail

Subject: Coping stone, detail

Subject: Coping stone, detail

Subject: Coping stone, detail

Subject: Coping stone, detail

Subject: Coping Stone with Railing Pillars, detail. The pillars are adorned with a stupa at the top and a faceted pillar supporting a triratna (the tri-pronged motif symbolizing the Buddha, dharma, and the sangha) that in turn supports a wheel.

Subject: Coping Stone with Railing Pillars. The pillars are adorned with a stupa at the top and a faceted pillar supporting a triratna (the tri-pronged motif symbolizing the Buddha, dharma, and the sangha) that in turn supports a wheel.

Subject: Lion capital, lion detail

Subject: Lion capital, detail of abacus showing an elephant

Subject: Lion capital, detail of abacus showing a horse

Subject: Lion capital, detail of abacus showing a bull

Subject: Lion capital. The capital shows four addorsed lions mounted on a round abacus. On the abacus are four animals-a bull, a lion, an elephant, and a galloping horse–separated from one another by a wheel, a reference to the Buddha’s turning of the Wheel of the Law. A large stone wheel’s rim is supported on the backs of the four addorsed lions. The wheels are also a symbol of the ideal universal monarch, the chakravartin used by Ashoka, who sought to project himself as a chakravartin.

Subject: Lion capital, detail of abacus showing the wheel

Subject: Lion capital, detail of abacus showing a lion

Subject: Lion capital, detail of abacus showing an elephant and a lion

Subject: Lion capital. The capital shows four addorsed lions mounted on a round abacus. On the abacus are four animals-a bull, a lion, an elephant, and a galloping horse–separated from one another by a wheel, a reference to the Buddha’s turning of the Wheel of the Law. A large stone wheel’s rim is supported on the backs of the four addorsed lions. The wheels are also a symbol of the ideal universal monarch, the chakravartin used by Ashoka, who sought to project himself as a chakravartin.

Subject: Lion capital. The capital shows four addorsed lions mounted on a round abacus. On the abacus are four animals-a bull, a lion, an elephant, and a galloping horse–separated from one another by a wheel, a reference to the Buddha’s turning of the Wheel of the Law. A large stone wheel’s rim is supported on the backs of the four addorsed lions. The wheels are also a symbol of the ideal universal monarch, the chakravartin used by Ashoka, who sought to project himself as a chakravartin.

Subject: Detail of the Samadhi Sthal (cremation site)

Subject: Samadhi Sthal (cremation site) of Shasan Rashmi Mahastaveer, patron of the temple

Subject: Dedicatory plaque to Shasan Rashmi Mahastaveer, patron of the temple

Subject: Information painted about the Enormous Buddha

Subject: View of the back of the Enormous Buddha standing in Wat Thai

Subject: Gateway modeled after Sanchi's gateways, detail showing Ashoka's pillar