Dharma Chakra and Two Deers
Dharma Wheel is widely used to represent the Buddha's Dharma. Dharma Wheel and two Deer rest peacefully and obediently on either side of the Dharma chakra. As per the traditional Indian system of polarity placement, the male deer resides on the left, and the female on the right. The deer represents qualities of the true renunciate through their gentleness and grace. Not to mention their lifestyle as wanderers, and never spending the night at the same place twice.
The original emblem precedes Buddhism, as the clay seals depicting the deer flanking on either side of Shiva were unearthed at Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley. However, the connection between early Shaivism and the first disciples of the Buddha, as the name “Pashupatinath” or the “Lord of the Animals” alludes. Upon Shakyamuni’s return after attaining enlightenment, he delivered his first discourse in the Deer Park at Sarnath. The Park was most probably also a sacred grove where Shaivite yogins lived and practiced. The most likely happenstance that was the replacement of Pashupatinath by the wheel Dharma chakra, because of the establishment of the great stupa and monastery at Sarnath.
In a way, it supposedly symbolizes Buddha’s teachings as reigning supreme over its early Shaivite predecessor. The wheel and the deer eventually became the standard emblem of an establishment where Buddha’s teachings are transmitted.
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Size: 11.5cm/4.5"(Height) X 4.5cm/1.7" (Base)
Deer Size: 6cm/2.3"(Height) X 5.2cm/2"(Base)
Weight: 362gm (approximately)
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