著者

定方 晟

出版者

東海大学

雑誌

東海大学紀要 文学部 (ISSN:05636760)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.78, pp.130-106, 2002

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The nimbus of Buddhist statues is said to be an Indian version of the Iranian picturized hvarna (Glory). I try now to compare the Buddhist dharmacakra with hvarna. An Avestic scripture Zamyad Yast says that the hvarna left Yima when he began to tell lies. A Buddhist scripture Cakravarti-sthanada-suttanta says that the divine disk (dibbam dhammacakkam) left a king in a certain moment, but a new disk appeared for the next king when the latter began a righteous rule. In the domain of art, the solar-disk with wings (symbol of the Kingly Glory) depicted in the ancient relieves of the western world (Mesopotamia and Iran) reminds us of the cakra (wheel) depicted in the Buddhist sculptures as one of the seven treasures of universal king (Cakracartin). I think that the Buddhist idea of dharmacakra was influenced somehow by the Iranian idea of hvarna, and that such an influence was possible in the Mauryan period.