History, Importance, Best Time to Visit, Interesting Facts and Travel Guide of Ashoka Pillar, Sarnath, near Varasni, Uttar Pradesh, India
The Ashoka pillar located near Dhamek Stupa in Sarnath, the holiest site of Buddhism is one of the most popular Ashoka Pillar of India. From Ashoka Pillar of Sarnath, four Asiatic lions are adopted in the national emblem of India on 26th January 1950. Across the India, you can find several “pillars of Ashoka” which are inscribed with edicts of Mauryan Emperor Ashoka during his rule, out of all these pillar, Ashoka Pillar of Sarnath is one of the most important and famous one due to representing the Lion Capital.
The date of erection and commissioner of this pillar is also confirmed by the edicts of Ashoka that is inscribed on it. It has also recorded the visit of Ashoka to Sarnath which was around mid of 3rd century BC. The Ashoka Pillar of Sarnath, once stood over 17 meters in height and its capital with the four lions back to back placed on the top of pillar and each facing in the four cardinal directions. The opened mouth lion spreading the Dharma and also symbol of royalty and leadership of Buddhist king Ashoka who commissioned these columns. You can also see the four animals at the base of the Ashoka pillar, a bull, a lion, an elephant, and a horse which represents the four phases of Gautam Buddha’s life. This round base is within the type of an reversed bell shaped lots flower. There’s four 24 spokes Dharma Chakra amongst four animal.
The complex around the pillar has a great space with lush green area where the monks are being observed meditating. The Sarnath museum, one of the oldest archaeological museum of India is located near to the complex where four line has been placed securely. The museum contains more than 6000 sculptures and artworks and is considered to be one of the famous museums of India.
Along with the Ashok Pillar, you must have to visit other site here at Sarnath like Dhamek Stupa, Mahabodhi Society temple, Chaukhandi Stupa, Thai Temple, Sarnath Museum, Tibetan Temple, the Garden of Spiritual wisdom, Japanese temple etc.
Sarnath is the holiest site across world for Buddhism and famous pilgrimage cum tourist destination located on confluence of holy river Ganga and Varuna, just at 10 km from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. After attaining nirvana or enlightenment, Gautama Buddha had delivered his first discourse or taught the Dharma to his first five disciple here at Sarnath. And Sarnath is the place where first Buddhist Sangha was formed and came into existence, thus this site is believed to be one of the main four Buddhist site across the world. This first sermon of Lord Buddha is famous as the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta in which he explained about the four noble truths and the teachings associated with them.
How to Reach Sarnath, holiest place of Buddhism, near Varansi, Uttar Pradesh, India
Sarnath is one of the four holiest site for Buddhist across the world and just 10 km away from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Thus you can easily reach here via Varanasi from across the India. You can get public and private transport to reach Sarnath from Varanasi. Thousands of devotee and tourist across the world flocked here around the year. Varanasi is very well connected with all major cities of India via Road, Rail and Air network. The temple is located at just 5 km away from the Varanasi railway station and you can reach temple from any corner of cities via cab or rickshaw. Varanasi has major railway junction from where you can get train to all the cities of India like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Indore, Allahabad, Dehradun etc. at very high frequency. Varanasi has also Airport from where you can flight to several cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Gaya, Hyderabad, Bhuvaneshwar etc. Also Varanasi is import district of Uttar Pradesh thus it is well connected by state and national highway. Sarnath is located at 125 km from Allahabad, 331 km from Kanpur, 319 km from Lucknow, 252 km from Patna, 220 km from Ayodhya, 250 km from Chitrakoot, 252 km from Fatehpur, 200 km from Gorakhpur, 260 km from Gaya.
