It was cracked across the neck just above the lotus, and two of its lions had sustained damage to their heads. The Lion Capital was in much better condition, though not undamaged. The column, which had broken before it became buried, remains in its original location in Sarnath, protected but on view for visitors. Oertel in the ASI winter season of 1904–1905.

It was excavated by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) in the very early years of the 20th century. The capital eventually fell to the ground and was buried. Erected after Ashoka's conversion to Buddhism, it commemorated the site of Gautama Buddha's first sermon some two centuries before. A bell-shaped lotus forms the lowest member of the capital, and the whole 2.1 metres (7 ft) tall, carved out of a single block of sandstone and highly polished, was secured to its monolithic column by a metal dowel. The side of the abacus is adorned with wheels in relief, and interspersing them, four animals, a lion, an elephant, a bull, and a galloping horse follow each other from right to left. Its crowning features are four life-sized lions set back to back on a drum-shaped abacus. The Lion Capital of Ashoka is the capital, or head, of a column erected by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in Sarnath, India, c.

The architectural bell below the abacus, is a stylized upside-down lotusĨ6 centimetres (34 in) (diameter of abacus)

Between the chakras appear four animals in profile-horse, bull, elephant, and lion. The Buddhist wheel of the moral law appears in relief below each lion. Four Asiatic lions stand back to back on a circular abacus.

About lion in hindi wikipedia