Emblem of India | History

The State Emblem of India, as the Republic of India's national emblem is called, is an adaptation of Ashoka's Lion Capital from 250 BCE at Sarnath, kept in the Sarnath Museum near Varanasi. It has 4 lions facing 4 different directions: north , east, south , and west. In December 1947 a representation of Ashoka's Lion Capital was initially adopted as the Dominion of India's emblem. The current version of the emblem was adopted officially on 26 January 1950, the day on which India became a republic.

Congress gave Nandalal Bose (then the Principal of Kala Bhavan Shanti Niketan in Shantiniketan) the task of embellishing the original copy of India's constitution. With the help of his students, one of whom was Dinanath Bhargava, then 21 years old, Bose set out to complete this task. Bose was keen to include Ashoka's Lion Capital in the constitution's opening pages. Wanting to depict the lions in a realistic manner, he chose Bhargava who studied lion behavior at the Kolkata Zoo. It was adopted as the State Emblem of India on 26 January 1950.