The Ashoka Chakra on India’s national flag has 24 spokes.
The navy-blue wheel appears at the center of the flag’s white band. It is based on the Dharma Chakra, or wheel of dharma, associated with the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath. The wheel replaced the spinning-wheel symbol used in an earlier version proposed during India’s independence movement.
India adopted the flag on 22 July 1947, shortly before independence. Its saffron, white and green horizontal bands are commonly associated with courage and sacrifice, truth and peace, and fertility and growth, although the flag code gives the design rather than a single rigid symbolic explanation.
The 24 spokes are often linked with ideas of movement, duty and moral order. The wheel is sometimes mistakenly called a sun, but its defining feature is its spokes and historical connection to Ashoka’s Buddhist-era symbol.