What it says
Four lions sit on a round abacus carved with four wheels and, between them, an elephant, a bull, a horse and a lion, all moving. Below is a bell-shaped lotus. A larger stone wheel once stood on the lions’ heads; pieces of it survive. The pillar beside it carries Ashoka’s edict warning the sangha against schism.
What it proves
It marks the place of the Buddha’s first sermon under Mauryan patronage, and India adopted it as the State Emblem on 26 January 1950, with the chakra on the national flag.
