Dharmachakra

Also called: Wheel of dharma · Topic: Early Indian Art and Architecture: Stupas, Rock-cut Caves, Temples · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 5 "The Rise of Empires"; Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings"

Meaning

The Dharmachakra (wheel of dharma) is a wheel that stands for the Buddha's first sermon at Sarnath, when he "set the wheel of dharma in motion" (dharmachakra pravartana). In early Buddhist sculpture at sites like Sanchi and Bharhut, the wheel was carved in place of the Buddha's body to show that event.

It matters because it is one of the main keys to the aniconic phase of Buddhist art. If you cannot read the wheel, you cannot read the carving.

Explanation

Background: why a wheel and not the Buddha?

• Dharma (Pali: dhamma) here means the Buddha's teaching, the path to freedom from suffering and rebirth.
• Dharmachakra pravartana means "turning the wheel of dharma." It is the name for the Buddha's first sermon at Sarnath, near Varanasi.
• The idea is that a wheel, once pushed, keeps rolling.

• In the same way, the teaching began moving out into the world from that first sermon.

• Early sculptors at Sanchi and Bharhut usually did not carve the Buddha as a man. This is called the aniconic phase (aniconic: the main figure is not shown in human shape).

• The teaching was about escape from rebirth, so a symbol suited it better than a human body.

The wheel as one of a set of symbols

In the aniconic phase, each symbol stood for one event in the Buddha's life:

• Wheel (chakra): the first sermon at Sarnath.
• Bodhi tree: his enlightenment.
• Empty seat (vajrasana): the Buddha meditating.
• Stupa: his mahaparinibbana (his final death and freedom from rebirth).

These symbols cannot be read literally.

• A carved wheel is not a picture of a cart wheel. It stands for an idea, the teaching set in motion.
• To read it, you must know the beliefs of the people who made it, mainly the hagiographies (life-stories of the Buddha written by his followers to praise him).

Where it appears and how it was used

• The four toranas (carved gateways) of the Great Stupa at Sanchi show scenes from the Buddha's life and Jataka stories (stories of the Buddha's earlier births) [2].

• Symbols like the wheel let sculptors tell the life-story without carving the Buddha himself.

• The gateways were built under the Satavahana rulers, who employed the ivory workers of Vidisha. These craftsmen were used to carving small, fine detail [2].

• The wheel was used alongside non-Buddhist popular images such as Shalabhanjika, Gajalakshmi and nagas (serpents). So the same stone mixed Buddhist doctrine with older village beliefs.

Change over time

• Later carvers began to show the Buddha in human form. A Sanchi east-gate panel is catalogued by the national culture portal as "the Buddha inside" [3].
• Human images of the Buddha also grew at Mathura and Gandhara, along with devotional worship and Mahayana Buddhism.
• Even after this, the wheel stayed an important Buddhist symbol of the first sermon and of the teaching itself.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: early Indian art, roughly c. 200 BCE – 700 CE. The aniconic use of the wheel belongs to the early part of this period.
• Event it marks: the Buddha's first sermon at Sarnath (near Varanasi, present-day Uttar Pradesh).
• Sites: Sanchi (Madhya Pradesh) and Bharhut. Sanchi's gateways date to Satavahana rule and were carved by the ivory workers of Vidisha [2]. The Buddhist monuments at Sanchi are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• How we know:
• The carvings themselves, on the stupa railings and gateways.
• Buddhist texts: hagiographies and Jatakas. They let historians match image with text to see that the wheel means the first sermon.

• Official records: the Archaeological Survey of India's records on Sanchi [2] and the Indian Culture Portal of the Ministry of Culture [3].

• A warning from history: James Fergusson, a nineteenth-century art historian, studied Sanchi before Buddhist literature was translated into European languages. He read the images without their texts and wrongly called Sanchi a centre of "tree and serpent worship."

Don't confuse with

• Bodhi tree symbol: the tree stands for enlightenment (at Bodh Gaya). The wheel stands for the first sermon (at Sarnath). Enlightenment came first, then the sermon.
• Stupa as a symbol: inside a carved panel, a stupa stands for mahaparinibbana (the Buddha's final death), not for his teaching.
• Ashoka Chakra (on the national flag): this is the wheel from Ashoka's Sarnath lion capital, shown on India's flag with 24 spokes. It comes from the same Buddhist idea, but it is a Mauryan pillar emblem, not a symbol in a Sanchi narrative panel.
• Dhamma of Ashoka: Ashoka's dhamma was a set of moral rules for all his subjects, whatever their religion. The Dharmachakra is a symbol of the Buddha's own teaching and first sermon.

Prelims Hooks

• Wheel = first sermon at Sarnath. Bodhi tree = enlightenment. Empty seat = meditation. Stupa = mahaparinibbana.
• Dharmachakra pravartana = "setting in motion the wheel of dharma," the name for the Buddha's first sermon.
• Aniconic phase = the Buddha shown by symbols, not in human form. It is typical of early Sanchi and Bharhut.
• Sanchi's four toranas face the four cardinal directions and show Buddha-life and Jataka scenes. They were built under the Satavahanas by the ivory workers of Vidisha [2].
• Trap: James Fergusson misread Sanchi's symbols as "tree and serpent worship" because Buddhist texts were not yet translated.
• Trap: the wheel in a Sanchi panel is a narrative symbol of an event. Do not mix it up with the Ashoka Chakra on the national flag.

Mains Points

• Symbols need their texts. The Dharmachakra shows that early Buddhist art cannot be "read" from the image alone.
• Historians match the wheel with hagiographies to identify the first sermon.

• Fergusson's "tree and serpent worship" error shows what happens when images are read without the makers' texts.

• Symbol fits doctrine. Showing the teaching as a turning wheel, and not as a man preaching, fits a faith centred on escape from rebirth.

• The later move to human images of the Buddha (Mathura, Gandhara, and Sanchi's "Buddha inside" panel [3]) follows the rise of devotional worship and Mahayana.

• Continuity of a symbol. The wheel carried the idea of righteous teaching from early Buddhist sculpture to Ashoka's Sarnath capital, and from there into modern India's flag and emblem. This is a strong example of continuity in Indian heritage and culture.

Related concepts

• Vessantara Jataka
• Aniconic representation of the Buddha
• Shalabhanjika
• Gajalakshmi
• Mithuna
• Yaksha and yakshi
• Didarganj Yakshi
• Parkham Yaksha
• Saptamatrikas
• James Fergusson

Read more

• Sculpture: stories, symbols, popular traditions