The story goes back a little. With the date of my return visit to India approaching, I was wandering in research, immersing myself once again in the depths of Indian thought, and was surprised to find a grand pantheon of chakras I had never before imagined.
One of those was the idea of the ‘Universal Column (Pillar), Skambha’, which supports the macrocosm as a whole.
As I went through the data on ancient Buddhist sites in connection with the previous section, I became more intrigued by the Ashoka Stambha, Stone Pillar. The Stambha is famous for its lion’s head, which is now the national emblem of India, but in its original form, a Dharma Wheel seems to have been raised higher than the lion’s head at the top of the pillar.
Although few intact Dharma Chakra remain today, partly due to the fact that they were structurally very fragile, various pieces of evidence reveal the fact that many Ashoka stone pillars at the time had this Chakra at the top.
I had a memory of witnessing similar formations in a living Hindu temple, not a Buddhist site. It was a stone pillar standing in the precincts of the Gavi Gangadaleshwar temple near the city of Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka, which I had visited before.
I revisited the site in late 2009 to confirm this directly. In the photo above, there is a stone pillar called Suryapanas with a big disc at the top, which seems to have represented worship of the sun god, and looks very similar to the original Ashoka stone pillar, although the size ratio is a bit different.
In addition, another stambha stood in front of it. This temple is a Shiva temple with Shiva Lingam as its principal deity, and this stambha was a gigantic version of the Trishula (trident), Shiva’s sacred weapon.
This “Trishula as Stambha” gave me an impression. As shown in the picture below, the handle of the trishula held by Shiva would look like a danda, or stick, if Shiva were the same size as a human. But the Supreme God cannot be the same size as a man. He must definitely be a giant like Atlas. Then the only way to try to represent him as realistically as possible would be to make the danda to be giant, a Stambha column.
A Chhatra version of the same composition was also present at the Boganandishwara temple near Bangalore. It was a huge stone Chhatra umbrella that stood in the hall in front of the main shrine. If it were the hand-held size for a human, its handle would be a danda stick, but if it were gigantic for representing the grandeur of God, it would be a magnificent Stambha pillar.
At first glance, the shape of the chhatra stambha looks like a giant mushroom, with an imbalance between the thickness of the handle shaft and the size of the umbrella, but when the chhatra was turned sideways, it is nothing other than the shape of the wheel-axle set as it is.
There was the simple fact that a stick called a danda, whether it was an axle, an umbrella handle or a spear handle, became a stambha, or pillar, when it was made huge.
This is perhaps easier to understand if we relate it to forestry, in which I have been involved for many years. For example, if you thin out a young cedar tree planted 4 or 5 years ago, cut off the branches and strip the bark as a whole, it becomes a useful stick, called a “danda”, which can help a person walk. On the other hand, if you cut down a cedar tree that has been planted for more than 20 years and do the same thing, it will make a sturdy pillar, or “stambha”, to support a roof.
Yes, Danda and Stambha are ‘essentially exactly the same’ although they differ in size and use, where they share the function of ‘support’. This would not only be my own empirical subjectivity but a universal objective truth throughout the world, including India.
Stambha is a enlarged version of Danda. When made of wood, both are made from a single tree trunk, which is almost in its natural state.
If, as we have seen so far, Danda is an axle, then is not Ashoka Stamba pillar also a giant axle and the Buddha at same time? This was the hypothesis that I arrived at after much association.
In my previous post, “The Buddha, Who Turns the Dharma Chakra at its Centre“, I have already detailed ‘how an axle representing the Buddha rises as a central pillar inside the stupa with the base platform of a wheel’.
If that is the case, is this Ashoka Stambha not the Buddha himself, in the form of the axle as a ‘monolithic version’, taken out from inside the stupa?
To examine this hypothesis of ‘Danda-Stick = Stambha-Pillar = Aksha-Axle’, which is at the same time ‘Aksha-Axle = the God or Buddha (Supreme deity)’, I again went back to ancient Vedic mythology.
Recalling, the fact that Lord Vishnu was worshipped as a world-supporting deity was already evident in the Rig Veda. Was this specifically linked to the image of the “Stambha”, the central Axis Pillar?
The proto-form of the image, which should be referred to, was not Vishnu but was mentioned in the Rig Veda under the name of Indra.
Rig Veda 10.89.4
indrāya giro aniśitasargā apaḥ prerayaṃ sagarasya budhnāt | yo akṣeṇeva cakriyā śacībhir viṣvak tastambha pṛthivīm uta dyām ||
Wisdom Library, Intratext
I will send forth my songs in flow unceasing, like water from the ocean’s depth, to Indra.
Who to his car on both its sides securely hath fixed the earth and heaven as with an axle.
Here, the image is explicitly expressed that the two worlds of heaven and earth are superimposed on the two wheels of a ratha chariot, and that just as the aksha-axle supports both wheels, so Indra supports heaven and earth in separation.
In a more concrete image, the wheels of heaven and earth are separated into upper and lower, so the axle that supports both of them is naturally standing upright. In this case, an axle large enough to support heaven and earth would be nothing other than a towering super-massive ‘Stambha Pillar’.
This image of ‘separating and supporting both heaven and earth’ is shared by various deities of the Rig Veda, and may have eventually converged into Vishnu as ‘the god who supports the world’. There, it is very likely that He also was essentially the “Axle God”, separating and supporting both heaven and earth like wheels.
Again, an Axle-God that supports heaven and earth must be of an unimaginable size to man, so it is no longer an axle rod or the like, but nothing other than an extraordinarily huge Axis Stambha-Pillar, from human view.
In later Hinduism, when a statue of Vishnu holds a danda, we perceive it to be stick-size because the statue is ‘at most the size of a man’. But let us remember the Trishula Stambha of Shiva in his gigantic form mentioned earlier. Considering the size of Lord Vishnu, who strides the three worlds of heaven, sky and earth in three steps, the danda in his hand is also, from a human point of view, a magnificent stambha column piercing heaven and earth.
In other words, it can be seen that Vishnu had Danda (actually a super-stambha) in his hand to represent that he is essentially a grand column supporting the world.
A site symbolizing this ideology of “Vishnu as the great pillar of the world” actually existed in the suburbs of Vidisha, near Sanchi, which is famous for its Buddhist ruins. There stands a towering stone pillar, affectionately called the “Khamb Baba (Pillar God) by the local people, also known as “Garuda Stambha” because Vishnu’s vehicle is the Garuda.
It was built by Heliodorus, an ambassador of the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas from Taxila to India around 120 B.C. It is interesting to note that Vishnu worship was widespread among the Greeks at that time. Incidentally, the name Heliodorus means ‘gift (dolus) of the sun (helio) ‘, and some scholars said that Vishnu (Vasudeva), originally the sun god, was made his own patron god.
Although its workmanship is vastly inferior in size and technology to the Ashoka stone pillar, it is nevertheless extremely important as the earliest evidence of the worship of Lord Vishnu (Vasudeva-Krishna) as the world’s Stambha Pillar.
A dedication written in Brahmi script was inscribed on the pillar, venerating Vāsudeva, the Deva deva the “God of Gods” and the Supreme Deity.
The pillar is a stambha which symbolizes joining earth, space and heaven, and is thought to connote the “cosmic axis” and express the cosmic totality of the Deity.
Wikipedia:Heliodorus pillar
The idea of identifying Lord Vishnu with the stambha has been handed down to the present day. Reviewing the photographic data again, I was able to confirm that many of those temples worshipping Lord Vishnu as the main deity, including the Jagannath temple in Puri, have stone stambha in front of the entrance gate. I have visited the Jagannath temple many times, but I must have not noticed it before, even though the stambha has been standing there all along.
Considering Ashoka Stambha again on the basis of this Vishnu Stambha, I have a strong impression that it represents the Buddha himself. In huge Buddhist structures such as the Stupa of Nagarjuna Konda, Sangor, Nepal, Tibetan Chorten and the five-storey pagoda of Horyu-ji Temple, what was originally an axle became a ‘pillar’ and rose in the centre of the structure. We have also examined the possibility that the central pillar is the Buddha himself as the axle of the Dharma wheel.
If this is the case, it is quite natural to assume that the Ashoka Stone Pillar was built as a monolithic monument symbolizing the Buddha himself. It may have been taken out of the stupa for ease of understanding, as it was originally the axle pillar.
Also, as previously mentioned, the Buddha’s Dharma Chakra and Vishnu’s Sudarshan Chakra were rivals in the same age. On the other hand, the Ashoka Stambha was built prior to the Garuda Stambha and seems to have influenced its design. Vishnu’s identification with the Stambha may have been an imitation of Buddha, who was already associated with it.
No, this explanation is not appropriate a bit. There is no doubt that Vishnu, who was originally already worshipped in the Rig Veda as the one who supports the world, must be the originator of the stambha belief. It is the same with regard to the symbolism of danda and chakra.
More precisely, the Chakra symbolism itself was originally derived from the Aryan Vedic Vishnu, which was borrowed and featured extensively as a symbol of Buddha by the Buddhists at a certain time. It spread throughout the Indian world under the power of King Ashoka, and eventually, with the rise of Hinduism, it was once again revived as Vishnu’s. That would be the correct order of history.
This relationship is not only about symbolism. Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu, is depicted in Buddhist texts as a previous incarnation of Gautama Siddhartha. There is also the fact that as the ninth incarnation of Vishnu, the Buddha himself is incorporated in a very twisted way. In the time of King Ashoka, there may already have been the idea of superimposing Buddha on Vishnu. In many ways, Buddha and Vishnu should be seen as having been the twins of history with a complicated and intricately nuanced rivalry.
Legend has it that Siddhartha, who later attained enlightenment and became the Buddha, immediately after his birth, took seven steps, pointed to the sky and to the ground and proclaimed, ‘In heaven and earth, I alone am the honored one’. The image of the “Buddha of birth” standing erect and pointing straight with his right hand to the heaven, and to the earth with his left hand, is truly reminiscent of the ‘one and only pillar’.
This composition also overlaps with the mythological composition of Krishna, (although the left and right sides of the hand are reversed), in which he lifted Mount Gowardhan with one hand and used it as an umbrella to protect people from heavy rain, which brought down by the angry Indra.
The composition of the birth Buddha standing in the centre of a round water basin may be an indication that Buddhists of the time considered Buddha to be the pillar (axle) supporting the world, similar to Lord Vishnu.
I have written before that there was a universal concept of ‘God or Buddha (the principal supreme deity) as the axle of the world’. If that’s true, then there must also be some evidence left that Brahman and Shiva were viewed as the Stambha, or support, of the world. If we imagine this world or the macrocosm as a gigantic wheel, the axle that supports it must be a magnificent pillar far beyond human imagination.
Then, it was indeed true, that such statements could be found here and there in the Vedas, Upanishads and other sacred texts.
Around the first millennium B.C., Indian seekers, no longer satisfied with Rig Vedic polytheistic personality deities, deepened their philosophical speculation and finally established the idea of Brahman, the Supreme One (tad ekam) of the macrocosm and the source of creation. In the Atharva Veda, which can be called the original landscape, the one and only “Skambha,” the Universal column of all things, appears.
Atharva Veda 10.7. （Skambha Hymn 1）
Sacred Text
yé púruṣe bráhma vidús té viduḥ parameṣṭhínam
yó véda parameṣṭhínaṃ yáś ca véda prajā́patim
jyeṣṭháṃ yé brā́hmaṇaṃ vidús te skambhám anusáṃviduḥ 17
17. They who in Purusha understand Brahma know Him who is. Supreme. He who knows Him who is Supreme, and he who knows the Lord of Life, These know the loftiest Power Divine, and thence know Skambha thoroughly.
skambhó dādhāra dyā́vāpr̥thivī́ ubhé imé skambhó dādhārorv àntárikṣam
skambhó dādhāra pradíśaḥ ṣáḍ urvī́ḥ skambhá idáṃ víśvaṃ bhúvanam ā́ viveśa 35
35. Skambha set fast these two, the earth and heaven, Skambha maintained the ample air between them. Skambha established the six spacious regions: this whole world Skambha entered and pervaded.
“Skambha” is another spelling of stambha, a noun with “s” added to “kambh,” which generally means pillar. Here Skambha was praised as the fundamental principle of the universe, together with “Kala” (=time, recall that time was superimposed on the wheel), etc., and was identified with Brahman, the Immortal One symbolizing Ultimate Liberation and the Originator of the universe.
Since it supports both heaven and earth, it can be assumed that this Skambha is a developed and inherited version of the deity who, in the Rig Veda, separated and supported both heaven and earth like an axle. With this in mind, I looked into it and found evidence of Skambha in the Rig Veda.
It is often praised that the gods surveyed the heavens, the sky, and the earth to increase their extent, and that they made the heaven and earth strong and stable with their pillar.
(From Nakamura Hajime’s selected works: “The Thought of the Vedas,” p.398)The most active of the active deities, he brought forth the two worlds of heaven and earth, which blessed all things. He was widely praised for his wisdom in measuring the two worlds with an immortal pillar. (Rig Veda 1.160.4, from p.452 of the same anthology)
Rig Veda 1. 160. 4
ayáṃ devā́nām apásām apástamo
University of Texas LRC
yó jajā́na ródasī viśváśambhuvā （ródasī रोदसी f. Heaven and earth）
ví yó mamé rájasī sukratūyáyā
ajárebhi skámbhanebhiḥ sám ānr̥ce
And, in the Atharva Veda, too, the image of the wheel world = Cosmic Chakra is explicitly mentioned.
Atharva Veda 10.8. (Skambha Hymn 2)
Sacred Text
dvā́daśa pradháyaś cakrám ékaṃ trī́ṇi nábhyāni ká u tác ciketa
tátrā́hatās trī́ṇi śatā́ni śaṅkávaḥ ṣaṣṭíś ca khī́lā ávicācalā yé 4
4. One is the wheel, the tires are twelve in number, the naves are three What man hath understood it? Three hundred spokes have thereupon been hammered, and sixty pins set firmly in their places.
ékacakraṃ vartata ékanemi sahásrākṣaraṃ prá puró ní paścā
ardhéna víśvaṃ bhúvanaṃ jajā́na yád asyārdháṃ kvà tád babhūva 7
7. Up, eastward downward in the west, it rolleth, with countless elements, one-wheeled, single-fellied. With half it hath begotten all creation. Where hath the other half become unnoticed?
The whole verse is metaphorical, hence its meaning is difficult to understand a little, but it makes sense if we consider that “one wheel” in verse 4 represents a year, “twelve tires” the number of its months, and “three hundred spokes and sixty pins” the number of days in a year. In the following verse 7, “Up eastward downward in the west,” means the sunrise and sunset, and “one-wheeled, single-fellied” could refer to the solar annual motion.
In sum, it’s here describing the rotation and operation of the heavenly wheel with the sun as the focal point, not the earthly wheel.
What was there is the very idea of the Cosmic Chakra in grandeur, which sees the phenomenal Universe as the turning and unfolding of the wheel, as I have already mentioned in “The Origins of Lord Vishnu and Surya Chakra” and “Devi Shakti, the Supreme Lord Behind“, as well as in “The Secret of Nataraja, the Dancing Lord Shiva“.
On the other hand, in the same Atharva Veda, the “Centrality” of the Skambha is also vividly described.
Atharva Veda 10. 7. (Skambha Hymn 1)
mahád yakṣáṃ bhúvanasya mádhye tápasi krāntáṃ salilásya pr̥ṣṭhétásmin chrayante yá u ké ca devā́ vr̥kṣásya skándhaḥ paríta iva śā́khāḥ 38
38. Absorbed in Fervour is the mighty Being, in the world’s centre, on the waters’ surface. To him the Deities, one and all betake them. So stand the tree-trunk with the branches round it.
Atharva Veda 10. 8. (Skambha Hymn 2)dūré pūrṇéna vasati dūrá ūnéna hīyate
Sacred Text
mahád yakṣáṃ bhúvanasya mádhye tásmai balíṃ rāṣṭrabhŕ̥to bharanti 15
With the full vase he dwells afar, is left far off what time it fails, A mighty Being in creation’s centre: to him the rulers of the realms bring tribute.
To summarize, Skambha-Brahman is the central axis pillar of the world (Axis Mundi), the axle that penetrates into the center of the Cosmic Chakra that unfolds and turns as a wheel.
It is noteworthy here that the Skaｍbha is described as “a tree trunk standing at the centre with branches surrounding it”. This context is very interesting in relation to the aforementioned Bodhi tree of the Buddha, where the “trunk of the tree,” as the meaning of word “Danda”, is regarded as a Skambha (In the first place, a pillar is made cutting from the tree trunk !) .
The representation of Skambha here is pretty similar to the Vishnu in the Rig Veda, who is said to support and sustain the world. The concept of Brahman, an impersonal neuter noun, was later transformed into a personal deity and became part of the Trimurti as the masculine Brahma, along with the Hindu personal deities such as Vishnu and Shiva, who were to rise to prominence in the Hindu pantheon.
There is a fact that Atman, the pure spirit Purusha introduced in the Samkhya philosophy, and Brahman were considered identical in the ancient Upanishadic thought of the late Vedas, and the idea of “Brahman = Atman” was born.
If we assume that Atman was the Purusha, the immovable axle, then the contexts of “danda = axle = Atman” and “Skambha = universal pillar (axis mundi) = Brahman” and “Atman = Brahman” all fit together beautifully.
And the fact that “OM (AUM)” the most sacred syllable (=akshara) of Hinduism was called “Brahman, the Supreme One” in the Kathaka Upanishad, and was hailed as the “most superior pillar of the universe”, comes into significance here.
Kathaka Upanishad Chapter 2
Shloka.org
15 Yama said: The goal which all the Vedas declare, which all austerities aim at and which men desire when they lead the life of continence, I will tell you briefly: it is Om (AUM).
16 This syllable Om is indeed Brahman. This syllable is the Highest. Whosoever knows this syllable obtains all that he desires.
17 This is the best support (pillar); this is the highest support. Whosoever knows this support is adored in the world of Brahma.
If you turn the wheels of a Ratha chariot in mid-air, you will hear the pure sound of the wheels turning, without the noise of the wheels rubbing against the ground. The more sophisticated the manufacturing process, the less resistance is created at the intersection of the axle and the wheel, and the more subtle and exquisite the friction sound becomes.
I have never actually heard this sound, but I would imagine it to be a mysterious, resonant sound, much like ‘Wooooonnnn’, echoing with a sense of enigma, reminiscent of a divine tone of celestial singing voice.
Eventually, as Indian thought matured, the axle became an upright Skambha the Cosmic Column, the one and only supreme Brahman, and the wheel became the Brahma Chakra = Cosmic Wheel which overlaps the phenomenal world of heaven and earth in its unfolding and turning.
Perhaps the sacred sound “Aum” was the sound of the universe’s rotation, the “Basso continuo” that is created at the intersection of Skambha the Cosmic Axle Column and Brahma Chakra the Cosmic Wheel.
Finally, let us look at the God Shiva. According to the Shaivaite myth of the Puranas, there was once an argument between Vishnu and Brahma as to who was the creator of the world. However, neither of them could come to a conclusion because both were insisting “I’m the one who created the world”.
There suddenly, a huge flaming Linga appeared. The peak of the Linga disappeared at the ends of the heavens, and its base sank into the depths of the sea, where both were invisible. In order to find both ends of the Linga, Brahma transformed himself into a swan and ascended to heaven, while Vishnu transformed himself into a wild boar and dived into the sea. But neither of them could find the ends of Linga, and they were only horrified to see that it was a great divine pillar, beginningless and endless.
At that moment, Shiva cracked open the pillar of the linga and revealed himself to them. Vishnu and Brahma, hats off to Shiva’s greatness, recognized and worshipped him as the true creator of the universe and the Supreme. Since then, they say, Shiva has been worshipped as Linga in temples.
In the Shiva Purana, the source of this myth, we can confirm the clear description of this flaming linga as a “Stambha Pillar”.
Shiva Purana 1:5:26-28
“nandikeśvara uvāca |
Mahapashupatastra
śṛṇu vatsa bhavatprītyā vakṣyāmi paramārthataḥ ||26
purā kalpe mahākāle prapanne lokaviśrute |
āyudhyetāṃ mahātmānau brahmaviṣṇū parasparam ||27
tayormānaṃ nirākartuṃ tanmadhye parameśvaraḥ |
niṣkalastaṃbharūpeṇa svarūpaṃ samadarśayat ||”
“Listen to me O son as I narrate with affection for you the highest truth. In earlier times in the first kalpa which is famous in this world, in that kalpa, Brahma and Vishnu indulged into a fight (debate) to prove one greater over the other. In order to resolve their conflict, in between them appeared Parameshwara (Shiva), in the form of a pillar (stambha) devoid of attributes”.
Furthermore, in other scriptures of the Shiva school, there are even mantras that praise Shiva, saying, ‘I take refuge in the supreme Shiva, the universal column that supports all the three worlds, with the moon shining in a tuft of hair’.
The fiery Linga was a gigantic Stambha=Skambha pillar itself, just as the image of it piercing the heavens and the earth suggests. When we consider that Skambha is the central axis of the macrocosm (Axis Mundi), and that Linga was also “the Axle” of Shiva Lingam’s composition, these words take on an even deeper meaning.
The sacred sound OM is of great significance to all Hindus, but it is most closely associated with this deity Shiva. This is because many of the existing schools of yoga worship Shiva as their chief deity, and the mantra of Aum is particularly closely associated with the practice of yoga, especially the breathing technique called pranayama. Ascetics or sages, called Yogi or Rishi, sit in the full lotus position in the high Himalayan mountains and engage in meditation by repeatedly chanting “OM”, just as the deity Shiva does.
In the Devi Shakti philosophy, when Shiva is Skambha the pillar of the universe, the wheel world that unfolds and turns being supported by it becomes the Devi Shakti Goddess. It is, of course, also a metaphor for the combination of Linga and Yoni. The coupling of male and female genitals can be compared to the union of an axle and a wheel.
When we look at the Sacred Sound Aum from this perspective, it can be seen as a “love sound” or “moan voice” that is born at the coupling of Shiva, the axle, and Shakti Goddess, the Wheel.
Chandogya Upanishad, Chapter 1, 1. 6.
The pair is united in the syllable OM. Indeed, when the pair is united in intercourse, they satisfy each other’s desires. (From original Japanese into English by machine translation)
“Upanishads”, translated by Yutaka Yuda
In this book, I have often referred to the term “Axis Mundi”, but how did people come up with the idea that there is a “central axis” in the world in the first place? Or even before that, how could people have acquired the concept of “centre” itself?
According to the religious scholar Eliade, the idea that there is a central axis of the world, “Axis Mundi” exists universally throughout Eurasia, and the geographical centre of its spread is around Central Asia. If we superimpose this insight on the historical expansion of the distribution of the wooden spoked wheel, we may be able to see something.
Compared to the old type of wheel, which was made of laminated wooden plates, the spoked wheel was based on a highly elaborate balance. What was required there was above all strict centrality. This would have been even more evident in the case of the Ratha Chariot, driving at high speeds on the battlefields. If the centre was off and mechanical strain built up, the delicate spoked wheels, which were assembled from many parts, would disintegrate in a matter of seconds.
The Aryans (the ancestor of Indo-Aryans) developed such a wheel and were closely associated with it on a daily basis as a tool of utmost importance. In the process of their manufacture and use, they could not help but be intensely aware of how important the centre is.
Above all, this wheel was also a symbol of the divine authority that revolutionized their lives with the power of the Ratha chariot. It was quite natural for them to think, that if the wheel rotates around an axle, superimposed on this world, heaven and earth, then this world must also have a central axis (a deity) equivalent to the axle, “Axis Mundi, or Skambha,” the central pillar of the Universe.
Eventually, in India, this concept of the ‘central axis of the universe/world’ led to the creation of another, amazingly grand and spectacular ‘Mount Sumeru’ cosmology.
~to be continued~
INDIA~The Land of Holy Chakra 