In Elements of Buddhist Iconography, Ananda Coomaraswamy analyzes the function of three symbols crucial to Buddhism and its representation in art: the tree of life, the earth-lotus and the word-wheel. Coomaraswamy convincingly demonstrates that these symbols can be found before their earliest representations in Buddhist art in the aniconic period of the Brahmanical Vedas as well as throughout the Rg Vedic period. He further asserts that these symbols continue in use into the present day …showed first 75 words of 1002 total…

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