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| Sunday, 15 June 2003 |
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The debate continues... Dharma Cakra in Sri Lanka: which shape is authentic? by Sumana Saparamadu There was, around Vesak, a debate in some Sunday Sinhala newspapers on the Dharma Cakra and on May 28, A.G.S. Kariyawasam joined the debate (Daily News Buddhist Mirror) with quotations from the Suttas, and appealed to Buddhists to re-consider the using of what now passes off and is accepted as the Dharma Cakra. The debate was triggered by a reviewer who took to task the editor/editors of the text-books on Buddhism issued to schools by the government, which carries the wheel symbol on the cover.
Among the many errors detected by this reviewer in this series of text books was the symbol of the wheel, the Dharma Cakra which 'has been distorted and degraded to a cart wheel.' The editor (editors) of the text-books has (have) neither distorted the symbol nor degraded the Dharma Cakra. It is the aforesaid writer who has erred misled by the ubiquitous use of what passes off as the Dharma Cakra. The editors should be congratulated, not taken to task, for having had the courage, after half a century, to make school children and their teachers aware of the symbolism of the wheel. What is currently accepted as the Dharma Cakra in Sri Lanka is not an old symbol common in Buddhist iconography. Inquiries revealed that this depiction of the Dharma Cakra was chosen from among many submitted for a competition held on the eve of the Buddha Jayanthi - the Vesak full moon day of the year 1956. Who the winning artist was I have failed to find out. Nor have I been able to find out what committee chose this symbol in preference to the other designs, and which minister gave it his official approval. Whatever its origin, this symbol has been approved, accepted and used without question for nearly 50 years, in Buddhist publications including text-books for schools, super-imposed on Buddhist flags, printed as car stickers, made into pendants for cars and vans. Even the brass lamp placed at the head of the coffin at Buddhist funerals has a Dharma Cakra. The ultimate sanction was the incorporation of this symbol in the National Emblem of the Republic of Sri Lanka. For 50 years our eyes have got so accustomed to this symbol that even people conversant with Buddhist Suttas cannot think of any other depiction of the Dharma Cakra. I showed the text-books in question to an editor of a mainstream paper and his instant reaction was, 'this, isn't the Dharma Cakra.' Flipping a pile of cuttings on the subject in the Lake House library, I came across a reference to objections raised by the late Dr. Vimalananda to the use of this symbol on the new State Emblem of Sri Lanka. It was the Ven. Madihe Pannaseeha Maha thero who in the fifties condemned the new design, which he said was a Sukkaanama, a ship's steering wheel and not a wheel that rolls along, thus nullifying the symbolism. It is indeed surprising that with the likes of Dr. G.P. Malalasekera around at that time,this wheel with the spokes sticking out was accepted as the Dharma Cakra. What then, readers may I ask, is the correct symbol? Some think it is the wheel on the capital of the column set up by King Asoka at Saranath, commonly referred to as the Asoka Cakra. (This capital with the Lions and the wheel is India's State Emblem). Illustrating the article in the Daily News referred to earlier, is a design of a wheel captioned "the original Dharma Cakra.' What is the evidence to substantiate this claim? Artists have drawn and sculptured ornate wheels to reflect the Dharma Cakra. Whatever the ornamentation it is basically and simply an ordinary wheel. The number of spokes it should have, has not been specified anywhere. The Asoka Cakra has, if my memory is not faulty, 24 spokes each representing a 'bodhi pakshika dharma'. In the early stone friezes at Sanchi, Mathura, Amaravathi and Nagarjunakonde the Buddha is represented by a symbol - the foot-print the wheel, the bodhi tree. Where the Buddha is represented by the wheel, it is a plain and simple wheel, no different to the wheels of carts in friezes depicting scenes from the Vessantara Jataka or from the life of the Buddha, like the Tapassu Balluka brothers meeting with the Buddha within a few days after his enlightenment. The brothers were itinerant traders and their cart is in the background. The wheel is not a symbol of Buddhism as the Cross is of the Christian religion. The Cross is a sign of the faith of the followers of Christ and also a sign of benediction. The Dharma Cakra has no such significance. Kariyawasam says, the Cakra was chosen by the Buddha himself to identify the unobstructed spreading of his teaching. Elaborating on the Buddha's choice of imagery Kariyawasam continues, "after deciding to preach his first sermon to the Panchavaggiya ascetics at Baranasi, the Buddha set out for Baranasi from Buddhagaya. The wandering ascetic Upaka met him on the way asked who he was and whose pupil he was. The Buddha after introducing himself said he was on his way to Baranasi, the city of the Kasis where he would 'set rolling the Dhamma Wheel "dhamma cakkam pavattutam gacchami kashinam puram." I am inclined to believe that these words attributed to the Buddha are a later interpolation by a commentator. If the Buddha did, in fact, say these words 'to set the wheel of the dhamma a rolling' he would have used this metaphore because the wheel was a very common object familiar to all and sundry in that society. The phrase is not different in meaning to the English, 'start the ball rolling.' Commentators have attributed other lofty meanings. The Buddha's first sermon in the Deer Park at Isipathana on the full-moon day of Esala, is known as the Dhamma Cakkha Pavattana Sutta from the regular repetition of the words 'dhamma cakkam pavatteti appatti vattitam' set a-rolling the wheel of the dhamma ever forward (without obstruction). These words are not part of the Buddha's discourse proper, expounding the fundamentals of his new philosophy - the four basic truths and the eight-fold path to Nirvana. They are in the epilogue to the Sutta added later by a commentator, if not by Ananda thero who recited by memory the Suttas he had heard the Buddha preach - Evam me sutam thus have I heard. According to Malalasekera's dictionary of Pali Proper Names, the name Dhammacakka pavattana sutta is found only in a commentary. So because of its connection with the Buddha's first sermon the wheel has come to symbolize the Dhamma which will spread unobstructed. But a wheel with spokes sticking out of the rim cannot roll. There in lies the distortion of the symbol, which no one has dared or cared to correct all these 50 years. The number of spokes is unimportant. What is important is that it should be a wheel that will keep on rolling once set in motion. Is it not high time that the Buddha Sasana Minister took action to stop, if necessary to ban, the use of the distorted Dharma Cakra, and officially adopt a symbol in keeping with the context in which the image was first used. The emblem displayed on the gate to the office of the Buddha Sasana Ministry in Dharmapala Mawatha is a correct symbol of the Dharma Cakra. Why not give it the Ministry's official approval? It is heartening to see the Weekly Buddhist Mirror in the Daily News using as its logo a correct depiction of the Dharma Cakra, so too is the logo of the weekly feature 'Aloko Udapadi in the Silumina. |
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