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The Lion Capital of Ashoka is the capital, or head, of a column erected by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in Sarnath, India, c. 250 BCE. Its crowning features [ 1 ] are four life-sized lions set back to back on a drum-shaped abacus .
The most celebrated capital is the four-lion one at Sarnath (Uttar Pradesh), erected by Emperor Ashoka circa 250 BC. Four lions are seated back to back. Four lions are seated back to back. At present the column remains in the same place whereas the Lion Capital is at the Sarnath Museum.
The capital, which became the national emblem of India in 1950, is in a museum in Sarnath. The Lion capital is a polished sandstone carving of four lions atop an abacus (the slab forming the top of a column). The lions are facing in four directions and on the abacus are eight images.
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The elaborately carved animal capitals surviving on from some Pillars of Ashoka are the best known works, and among the finest, above all the Lion Capital of Ashoka from Sarnath that is now the National Emblem of India. Coomaraswamy distinguishes between court art and a more popular art during the Mauryan period.
The Sarnath capital is a pillar capital, sometimes also described as a "stone bracket", discovered in the archaeological excavations at the ancient Buddhist site of Sarnath in 1905. [1] The pillar displays Ionic volutes and palmettes .
The pillar was originally surmounted by the Lion Capital of Ashoka, which in turn served as the base of a large 32-spoke sandstone wheel of dharma. The lion capital and the wheel of dharma, presently on display at the Sarnath Archeological Museum, now symbolize the modern state of India.
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