On the reverse side of this small silver roundel are two rings that were probably used to attach it to a garment, belt, or other such article of clothing. This design motif may be intended to depict a coronation or some other auspicious event, due to the presence of an ankusa (elephant goad), chowrie (fly-whisk), chattra (umbrella), and dhvaja (standard or banner) - four of the eight ashtamangala, auspicious symbols or glorious emblems associated with royalty and with Buddhism (the standard has alternatively been identified as a Buddhist reliquary).¹

While this motif of elephant riders seems to have been reserved for royal imagery before, during and after the Mauryan period, it appears in a number of locations and periods far beyond the Mauryan Empire. One of the most famous of these is a painting created on a leather plectrum guard of a biwa (stringed instrument), where a troop of performing musicians is depicted traveling through a landscape on elephant-back. While the instrument has been in the collection of the Shosoin treasury in Nara, Japan since the eight century, it is generally believed to be of Tang Chinese origin. In any case, it is clear that the motif of elephant riders continued to be of interest for many centuries after the Mauryan era had elapsed.

(1) The Crossroads of Asia: Transformation of Image and Symbol in the Art of Ancient Afghanistan and Pakistan (Cambridge: The Ancient India and Iran Trust, 1992), p. 160.