After setting up India’s tallest ‘Dharma Chakra’ (popularly known as Ashoka Chakra) in 2019 at Asoka Edicts Park in Topra Kalan village of Yamunanagar district, NGO Buddhist Forum and Topra Kalan’s gram panchayat is working together once again to set up a very unique Buddhist monumental structure, ‘Ashtamangala Chhatravali’, here.

Weighing around 2.5 tonne and made of mild steel, the ‘Ashtamangala Chhatravali’ will be 61 feet in height. The monument will be a three-disc structure of diameter 30 feet, 20 feet and 10 feet.

The chhatra, ‘Ashtamangala Chhatravali’, is a sacred combination of eight auspicious symbols in Buddhism — knot, lotus, flag, wheel, kalash, two fish and parasol.

 An ancient statue of Buddha, now placed at Sarnath Museum in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), has an ‘Ashtamangala Chhatravali’ over it.

This statue would be the tallest ‘Ashtamangala Chhatravali’ of India. The NGO will also later apply for Limca Book of Records 2021.

Some 2,300 years ago, Emperor Ashoka gave this village a hallmark status by erecting a monolithic pillar of sandstone with seven inscriptions and his last inscription of lifetime over it.However, that pillar was uprooted by then ruler Feroze Shah Tughlaq in 14th century AD and got it erected at its present day location at Old Fort at Feroze Shah Kotal, New Delhi.

Ashoka Edict Park was being set up in Topra Kalan for the revival of the lost Buddhist legacy and to make the coming generations aware of Emperor Asoka’s reign in Haryana

By: Atul Dhimann