The stump of the two thousand year old wooden axial pillar located
in the centre of mound ‘N’ at Lauriya-Nandangarh in India. |
 SECURING
HARMONY
The popular Indian religion at the
time of the Buddha was Brahmanism; it’s followers are called
Brahmins. They had a tradition of sacrificing animals to the
gods and before being killed the animals were tied to a sacred
post representing Indra’s stake. Many Brahmins became followers
of The Buddha. They asked him about the best way of making sacrifices.
He told them that ‘the best way was to sacrifice greed and selfishness
and to live a good, pure and generous life.’* The Buddha also
suggested that the old places of sacrifice need not be abandoned
as they were a traditional place of gathering and were now a
good place from which to give gifts to the poor and alms food
to the monks and nuns. ** Several stupas, when excavated, have
revealed animal bones below the original ground level at the
base of the stupa axis confirming that the old sacred sites
were indeed used and the stupas were built around the wooden
stake. notice the similarity of the word ‘sacred’ and ‘sacrifice’
* KUTADANTA SUTTA (D.I.144)
**
DIGHA NIKAYA (III.76)
NATURAL
FORMS
The stupa shape can be found in many
of nature’s forms. In one cosmic form it is the huge axial, world-mountain
‘Mount Meru’; the concept of which exists in both Hindu and Buddhist
mythology. It is seen as the mythical mountain which holds together
the four great continents and forms the centre of the universe,
the axis mundi.
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