Note On Birth Of Hero In Ancient India

Author(s): W B Bollee
Publisher: W B Bollee
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/269468/1

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A Note on the Birth of the Hero in ancient India
by W.B. Bollée
in memoriam Otto Rank
The present paper is based on a system of coordinates the vertical line of which features the heroes, viz. Indra, Vrātya, Prajāpati, Nārāyaṇa, the Jina, and the Buddha, while the horizontal line is divided into conception, gestation, birth, and some bodily marks. As is well-known, there are two words for the concept ”hero" as early as the Rgveda, viz. vīra and śūra which apparently differ very little in meaning. And though we find only compounds with -śūra, like dana-śūra when we consider the scholastic list of hero types in the Mahābhārata (cr. ed. 13,74,22 sqq.), yet we also meet with dāna-vīra (MW).
Further, since Indians do not seem to distinguish their heroes anything more by formal designation than by class of beings, neither shall we separate divine and human heroes in the following discussion. The heroic ideal of the Vedic Aryans is particularly represented by the god Indra as a fighter against human as well as demon-enemies, alone' or as a leader. He is born for battle and victory;the complete conqueror, 5 who brings about peace and escapes the goddesses of death. ? It is this ideal which, modified in the times of the Brāhmaṇas, and in a largely sedentary society, will be transferred to the old creator deity Prajāpati, who is then put on a pár with Indra8 and the sacrifice. Later, between the 7th and the 5th century B.C., the idea of religious
RV 3,30,4. PRV 8,46, 13. SRV 7,20,5. *RV 4,20,6. SRV 3,51,3. SRV 10,30,7. PRV 8,24,24. 8TB 1,2,2,5.
ŚB 1,7,4,4.

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Prajāpati, who is then put on a par with Indra and the sacrifice. Later, between the 7th and the 5th century B.C., the idea of religious single-handed fighter comes up among the descendants of the non-Vedic Aryans in Magadha, possibly beside the long-haired, perhaps sivaitic muni who overcomes attachment to this world. For this reason, Jains and Buddhists confer on him the title Mahāvīra or Vira. To use Hertha Krick's (1982: 5) definition, a vīra originally is a traditionally educated young Aryan who is entitled to the status of a priest and a warrior, has been admitted into the society of the Āhitâgnis, is allowed to partake of the Soma drink, is married and has a son. In the following I should like to deal especially with Jaina conceptions, compare them with and supplement them by the approximately synchronous data provided by Pāli literature, and outline their possible historical development. First some remarks about the name Mahāvīra.
According to Visvabandhu's Vedic Word-concordance, vira and sūra are mainly epithets of Indra, much less frequently of Agni and Soma. Furthermore, vīra is used with regard to groups of deities (sons of Aditi, the Angiras and the Maruts); sometimes it also designates demons. Once Rudra is called a vīra. The karmadhāraya compound mahāvīra is in Vedic literature first used with regard to Indra: (Vrtró) á hi juhvé maha-vīrám (Indram), in the late Sarabhôpanisat 61 regarding Rudra and, in YV texts like VS 19,14 and Kaths 21,2,3, as well as in the Brāhmanas, in connection with the Pravargya. I shall summarize these references here after Van Buitenen's study. 12 According to tradition, the Pravargya arose out of the deity Rudra's crushed head in the same way as, up to the present day, in oral tradition Mahārāstrian heroes must first lose their heads before they can be reborn. Günther Sontheimer referred to this phaenomenon in his introduction to the present series of lectures, and Heidrun Brückner mentioned comparable facts from Tulunāļu last week.13 The pravargya designates a Vedic ritual which can precede certain Soma sacrifices. At this ritual, originally in the early morning, later on also in the evening, the Aśvins were offered freshly milked warm cow's milk. In Ř V times, for this purpose the milk was heated in a pot (gharma) made of non-precious metal (ayas, RV
8TB 1,2,2,5.
ŚB 1,7,4,4. 10 RV 1,32,6 and AV Paipp 13,6,6. 11 Upanisatsamgraha I 355: krpayā Bhagavan Vişnum vidadāra nakhaiḥ kharaih
carmambaro maha-viro vira-bhadro babhüva ha. 12 Buitenen, Van 1968. 13 Brückner (see earlier in the present volume); Id. 1991, chapter 10, 1b; see also
Roghair 1982: 297 (I am obliged to Heidrun Brückner for this reference); Krick 1982: 499 et passim and Filliozat 1967: 74 sqq.

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5,30,15) and smeared all around with butter.14
In the post-samhitā period this simple sacrifice underwent a substantial change by being connected with a perhaps non-vedic or nonbrahmanical rite implying the manufacture, heating, worship, and removal of an earthen vessel called Mahāvīra. This change also implied that the secret knowledge referring to this should be passed on outside the village in the aranya,15 and that the execution, which is forbidden at a yajamāna's first Soma sacrifice, must be screened off against Sūdras and women,16 particularly, the yajamāna's wife. The said vessel, which is addressed as deva puras-caral and for which a samrād-asandi "emperor's throne"18 is prepared (this reminds us of the cakravartin), consists of three clay balls one on top of the other. The one at the top has been hollowed out and provided with an opening; the middle one is solid, and the broader lower one, which is flat at the bottom, serves as the basis. 19 A thin channel, Van Buitenen supposes, runs from the top down to the base of the lower clay ball.20 The Mahāvīra vessel, with its height of about twenty centimetres, reminds Van Buitenen of a man sitting tailor-fashion,21 also, because in SB 14,1,4,16 the vessel is expressly defined as a male:22 Vrsā vai Pravargyo, yoşā patnī, mithunam evaitat prajananam kriyate. This symbolism is no longer clear from the vessel's present form. 23 The meaning of the parigrīvam 'ring around the neck' or of the räsnä 'belt' surrounding the figure three or four fingers from the top remains obscure.24 The manufacture of the Mahāvīra, according to Van Buitenen takes place before the rains begin,25 and is done for the invigoration of the sun, which the vessel represents.26 It is made out of various kinds of earth, animal hair, and goat's milk.27 Goat's milk is used instead of cold water, against which the Pravargya must be protected.28 Then ghi is poured over it; it is set on fire, made red-hot, and is then worshipped.29
14 Van Buitenen, Ibid., 24; 26; 30. 15 Van Buitenen, Ibid., 38; 137 and 140. 1 Ibid., 40; 58. On the reason for this see Neumann 1962: 143. 17 TA 4,3,3(10) 18 ApSS 15,5,7. 19 Van Buitenen 1968: 10. 2010., 34; 59. 211d., 11, 23 sqq.; 59. 221d., 11; 22; 31. 231d., 9; plate 3:1. 24 Id., 11; 59. 25 Id., 31. 261d., 27 sq.; 31. 27 d., 57 sq. 28 Id., 30 sq. and 58. 291d., 26.

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In 1975, Van Buitenen's Mahāvīra vessel theory, particularly its anthropomorphism and the idea of the invigoration of the sun, were rejected by Kashikar,32 who recurs to Lüders' position. The latter scholar based his interpretation on Baudhāyana as the oldest source. There, mention is made only of three clay balls from which the parts of the mahāvira are shaped and then placed one on top of the other. It was also Lüders who had argued 33 that not the sun, but the milkstream of the sky from which the rain falls has to be invigorated before the monsoon starts, as the milk sacrifice is then discontinued. The three parts of the vessel correspond to the tripartite sky and consequently to the trebling of the skystream which in the shape of the heated milk contributes to the sun's heat. Later,34 the vessel is put on a par with the life-giving sun and the year, i.e. time - the latter being, since the family books of the RV, intimately related to Indra35 and afterwards to Prajāpati, his successor in the Brāhmaṇa period.36
Up to now, scholars have paid little attention to the relation of the name Mahāvīra to the object, the vessel. Van Buitenen rendered Mahāvīra by 'Large Man',37 Oldenberg by 'der große Held", 38 Renou by 'grand homme%39 and 'souverain'40, whereas Caland'1 and Hillebrandt 42 did not translate the word.
Now there is a tradition (TA, etc.) that at the end of the milk sacrifice the utensils are laid together near the Mahāvīra vessel in the shape of a man. These are then sprinkled with the flour left over from the sacrificial cake by way of marrow and with a mixture of sour milk and honey representing blood.43 On the one hand, all this reminds us of the common group of myths in which a primaeval giant or cosmic man like the rg- and atharvavedic Purusa is sacrificed so that the world can be created from him. On the other hand, we have Mahādeva, the Vrātya, who emerges from a piece of gold (suvarna) that Prajāpati, the rgvedic
301d., 11 sq. 311d., 37 (the latter goes back to Oldenberg 1917: 447). 32 Kashikar 1975: 137 sqq. and 141 sq. 33 Lüders 1951: 359 sqq. 34E.g., in the AitĀr 3,2,3. 35 Indra is the sun: RV 3,44,4; ŚB 1,6,4,18 etc.; - Indra regulates time: RV 3,30,12
sq.
36 Prajapati is identified with the sun at TB 1,6,4,1; SB 12,3,5,1 etc.; with the year:
AiB 1,1; 4,25 etc. 37 Ibid., 9. 38 Oldenberg 1917: 86; cf. Macdonell /Keith, II 1912: 142 'great hero.' 39 Renou/ Filliozat 1949: $721. *Renou 1954: 124. Thus also Minard 1956: $116 a. 41 Caland 1924: 423, 427. 42 Hillebrandt 1897 : 135. 43 Hillebrandt, Ibid.

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creator god, sees in himself a golden germ (hiranya-garbha), as it were. Similarly, Queen Māyā beholds the Bodhisatta in her womb. Besides, the Vrātya appears as a form of manifestation of the god Rudra, 15 who is later euphemistically called Siva and is given the epithet Mahadeva as well. Moreover, the Vrātya has close relations with the Pravargya in other respects. 46
As is well-known, the Mahādeva worshippers belonged to an older Aryan wave of invaders who had penetrated into eastern India before the vedic brahmins. We first hear of them in AV 15, but after that only sporadically in literature up to the Mbh. Then they disappear from literary, i.e. brahmanical, tradition. But first they leave clear traces in two religions appearing in Magadha centuries later: Jainism and Buddhism, which borrowed from the Vrātyas, e.g. the title arhant for the person liberated"7 and the designation gana for a group of monks. 18 For the fact that the vedic Aryans evidently could communicate with them shows already that the Vrātyas were Aryans - a point which was formerly often denied.49 Otherwise, the latter would have called the former mlecchas, the special importance of the language in accepting strangers in India having been shown by Romilā Thāpar in a recent lecture in Heidelberg.50
Vagrant life as almsmen at times other than the rainy season may also belong to the above traces,51 gifts of food, etc. to monks, which are rather a kind of daksinā (i.e., passing on or redeeming the guilt the yajamāna had incurred by the killing of the sacrificial victim) than alms. Besides, this notion still lives on in the minds of the Siamese, for, at the Loi Krathong, a festival celebrated especially in Chieng Mai in November, play-boats (krathong) made of banana leaves and holding a light, flowers and money are made to flow downstream. At some distance poor people are allowed to land them and take the money, yet with that also the sender's/donator's Evil (pāpman), represented by the money. Further, just as one is a Vrātya at a particular period of one's life and sets out on a predatory expedition, Buddhist boys, especially in Siam, go and live for some time in a monastery, following regular
44 AV 15,1,2. 45 See, e.g. Shrinivas 1983: 543-556. 16 The Mahāvīra vessel is covered with a gold plate and stands on a silver plate,
between heaven and carth, as it were. The Vrātya wears a couple of such plates as a necklace (sce Hauer 1927: 129). Van Buitenen apparently was not acquainted
with Hauer's remarks. 47 Hauer, Ibid., 202. 18 Sec Bollée 1981: 184. 19 For the Vrätyas in ancient literature see Heesterman 1962: 1-37. 50R. Thāpar 1991: forthcoming. 51 Cf. Hopkins 1909: 32.

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monastic practice during the rains.
Until Günther Sontheimer's recent discovery, the survival of the Vratyas with their typically shamanistic costume in Lord Khandoba's Vāghyās in Mahārāṣṭra was unknown. Did they emigrate from Magadha to the west and south at some time at some point, together with the Jains and the Buddhists ? Now, as we have seen, the Vratyas on the one hand influenced the two religions mentioned. They represent, therefore, not only a reaction to the post-Vedic sacrificial speculations of the brahmin priests, which were unintelligible for the ordinary warrior, peasant, or herdsman, but also carry on pre-Vedic traditions. On the other hand, popular Buddhism took over features of Indra, the Rgveda's central hero, and of Prajapati. In what follows we shall have a closer look at some characteristics of these deities in order to show how, already in pre-Christian times, they were applied to the Mahapurusas, as the Great Men of the Indian religions are called.. To that end, we shall begin with their conception, because, as is well-known, exceptional beings do not come into existence in the normal fashion, neither in India nor elsewhere.53 Among the unusual ways of conception we have that of a woman's navel being touched by a god or an ascetic.54 This type of birth occurs in Buddhist legends, too, but not in Jaina hagiography. However, both Vaddhamāṇa Mahāvīra and Gotama Siddhattha drop from heaven, where, in a previous existence, they had divine status, into their mother's womb.
The Jaina canon does not yet know of a reminiscence of previous existences which, still present in the womb, disappears at birth through claustrophobia or pains, as is described, e.g. in the Garbhopanised.55 This reminiscence does not recur before the Jina reaches transcendental knowledge (avadhi-jñāna). The future Jina, however, knows that he has to descend into a new existence; he is conscious of having accomplished the descent. All that he does not know is the exact moment (Ayar 2,15,3 = Kappa §3). In post-canonical Buddhist literature we shall meet with similar phaenomena.
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52
56
Given the importance placed on ritual purity already by the Vratyas, we may add here that the canonical texts of both new religions mention explicitly the purity of descent of Mahāvīra's and Gotama's princely
55
52 Sontheimer 1987a: 8 sq.; Id. 1989b: 302.
53 See, e.g. Jones 1970: 37 sqq.
54 E. g. in the case of Kunti (Mbh cr. ed. 3,291,23) and Dirghatamas (Mbh 1,98,31), cf. also Windisch 1908: 20. The navel is a place of origin: Brahma on a lotus arises from Visnu's navel, etc. Cf., e.g. Fodor 1949: 143 sqq.
Upanisatsamgraha 1970: 150 §4 in fine: atha jantuḥ stri-yoni-satam yoni-dvāri samprapto yantrenâpiḍyamano mahata duḥkhena jāta-mātras tu vaiṣṇavena vayunā samspṛśya tada na smarati janma-maranam na ca karma subhâśubham. 56 Implicit at Ayar 2,15,26 corresponding to Kappa Jinac §121.

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parents on the maternal as well as the paternal side (in this order !).57 In the case of the former, both his mothers (on whom more below) see already in the Siddhanta58 fourteen dreams with auspicious images, such as are typical of the Jaina religion, viz. static ones. Besides, the wealth of the royal family increased,59 even by the discovery of moneypots that had been hidden in former days and then forgotten.60 This too, I think, may be characteristic of Jains as well as Buddhists, 61 the laity of both mainly belonging to the third, or merchant (vaisya) class. Unlike Buddhist literature, however, Jaina texts mention that Queen Tisalā had dohadas,62 but omit the details usual in narrative texts.
We now come to the Bodhisatta's mother, whom we only know as such, i.e. as Māyā, just as his wife is called Rahula-mata. At the descent of her child, the Tipitaka tells us only that she did not think of men, not even of her husband,65 yet otherwise indulged in the pleasures of the five senses. 66 In the likewise pre-Christian Mahāvastu, Brahmă prophesies to Māyā the birth of an elephant among men, and she welcomes this message since she has conceived from her husband. In the Mahāvastu and the Lalitavistara, but not in the Nidānakathā and in Asvaghosa, this elephant comes to have six tusks 67 - probably an intended one-upmanship of its fellow Airāvata, deva-rājā Indra's mount, who possesses only four tusks. In her dream it touches her right side 68 and seems to enter her womb. On that occasion, Māyā's husband is not mentioned, in other words, he is excluded.69 This pregnancy dream
57 Kappa $18, cf. DighaN I 115,5. 58 Kappa Jinac $4. 59 Kappa &91. 60 Kappa $89. 61 Cf. Ja I 54,7 where among the Bodhisatta's co-natals four nidhi kumbhas are
mentioned. 62 Kappa $95. According to the Jains dohadas appear in the third month (Caillat
1974:51), yet they are not mentioned of Devananda. 63 Oldenberg 1881/1959: 105 and von Glasenapp 1936: 21 take Māyā to be a proper
name meaning 'Wundermacht' and are not bothered by the oddity of such a name. With it, Senart (1881: xxvi) associated "des attaches supra-terrestres" (cf. p. 275). - In the Tipitaka, Māyā only occurs as a nominative: Bhagavato Suddh'-odano rājā
pitā Māyā devi mātā, DN II 52,10; Th 534 etc. 64 See Windisch, 1908: 140 and, e.g. Thomas n.d.: 81. The tendency to designate
female "Respektspersonen" in a religious context as 'mother', whose devotees then are her children, is found up to the present day, e.g. regarding Sri Aurobindo's wife, Jillellamudi Amma in Bapatla (Guntur), Yogini Ammajī near Trichur (Kerala),
Anandamayī Mā in Bhadaini (Benares) etc. 65 For this detail see Jolly 1901 $40 and, c.g. Neumann 1962: 52. 66 DN II 12 sq.; MN III 122 sq. 67 See Lüders 1941: 52. 68 Printz 1925: 125 stresses the fact that the indication "right" only appears at Ja I
50,22 (Māyā's dream). See also Lüders 1941: 45 sqq. 69 Ibid., 95.

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motif is apparently a variation of the ascetic's touching a woman's navel (see above). So much for the hero's conception. We now pass on to his gestation.
The first case of this kind is found already in the 2nd millennium B.C., viz. in the old nucleus, the 'family books', of the RV. Here it is Indra's mother, again not mentioned by name, who, at RV 4,18,4 is said to carry her son for a thousand months70 and many autumns beyond full term apparently, like Agni's mother (RV 5,2,1 sq.), in order to protect him against his jealous father (whose name is not mentioned)." Or, does she carry Indra so long because she does not want him to be born ? 72 She knows that he would kill her, as is said in the first stanza in which Indra refuses to go the usual way of the gods, viz. "down the drain", for they did not become heroes.73 Thus the hymn commences amidst an obscure dialogue with words spoken either by the mother or by the gods: "Dies ist der erprobte alte Weg, auf dem alle Götter geboren wurden. Auf diesem soll auch er ausgereift geboren werden. Nicht soll er seine Mutter derartig zugrunde gehen lassen" (Geldner). Even as early as Oldenberg it was remarked that births in a way other than the natural way is found in the most different peoples' ideas with regard to their most powerful gods and heroes.74
The text does not tell us which side,75 nor the bearing stance. Not before Gotama the Bodhisatta do we hear of these details. Yet the origin of the lateral birth idea, just as that of the lateral conception in Gotama's case, has not yet been explained, as far as I know. Perhaps the idea originated in the custom of carrying children on the hip, but Indra's lateral birth must be connected with his splitting heaven and earth,76 this being a horizontal movement in the middle of the cosmic egg," and also of his mother's waist, which is the middle of her body. Cf. also passages like SB 6,1,1,2 sa yo 'yarn madhye práṇak, esa evendraḥ
70L.e., 100 times the usual period. The full term of the gods takes millennia, c.g. twenty in Kärttikeya's case - with several foetus transfers (see Mani 1975: 747).
71 See Rank 1909: 74 and Neumann 1962: 132 sq.
72 In MS 2,1,12 Aditi as Indra's mother even binds her son in her womb with an iron fetter and in this state he was born. Cf. Neumann 1962: 300.
73 Cf. Neumann 1962: 154; 164, but already indicated by Jung, e.g. 1976, ch. VI, esp. §456 sq. and in other works.
74 Oldenberg 1917: 132 note 3.
75 Geldner, in his introduction to the hymn, even speaks of Seiten, i.e., plural.
76 RV 7,23,3 cd: ví badhista syá ródasi mahitvéndro vṛtrány a-pratí jaghan van "Indra drängte beide Welthälften durch seine Größe auseinander, als er die Dämonen erschlagen hatte, denen keiner gewachsen war" (Geldner, Id.). Vṛträni, however, should here be translated by "obstacles", I think.
77 At RV 3,49,1 and 8,61,2 both worlds, which originally were united (RV 3,38,3 with Geldner's note), are said to have created Indra and at RV 4,17,2 heaven and earth tremble at his birth.

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and perhaps MN III 231,13 where the Buddha explains his majjhimā pațipadā between kāma (Indra) and tapas (Prajāpati).
Besides, it may be noticed that in the Ř V we meet with the first, though mythical, case of intra-uterine communication between mother and child. Popular belief, especially in India,78 was acquainted with this long before western prenatal psychology began taking note of it in this century."
Of Mahāvīra tradition tells us that for the first 82 days80 he stayed in the womb of Devanandā, a brahmin lady, and was then transplanted by Indra, 81 or, at his command, by his army commander Hariñegamesī82 into the Ksatriya Queen Tisalā's womb, for the idea had come to Indra's mind that Jinas are never reborn into lower class, poor, or Brahmin families.83 Later, when Devananda and Usabhadatta, her husband, happen to call on Mahāvīra in a temple in order to pay their respects to him, the latter designates her as his mother.84 The Āyäranga, the oldest Jaina Āgama, complicates things in that it gives brahmin nomina gentilicia to Usabhadatta as well as to Siddhattha, Tisalā's consort, i.e. Kodāla (Sa. Kausalya)85 resp. to Kāsava (Sa. Kāśyapa).86 Both Jainism and Buddhism, however, are Ksatriya religions and therefore Mahāvīra could not be a Brahmin. This was a "misconception", which the later church leaders did away with by means of the miraculous foetus exchange by the goat-headed god Hariñegamesī.
The Jains, as is well-known, adopted and adapted this vaisnavite mythologeme in which Nidrā, the goddess of sleep, exchanges the foetus of Baladeva from the womb of his mother Devakī into that of her sister Rohiņī, in order to save him from the mortal grip of his Herodes-like father Kamsa.87 Here, the point of departure for the Jains was the name
78 Also, e.g. RV 4,27,1 (Soma); Mbh cr. ed. 1,98,13 and 12,328,46 (Dīrghatamas).
For modern examples see, e.g. Oman 1908: 69; Thompson and Balys 1958: T 575.1. 79 See, e.g. Janus 1990: esp. 76 sqq. 80I cannot offer an explanation of nor parallels for this number. 81 Ayar 2,15,4. 82 Kappa Jinac $30. 83 Kappa Jinac $17. 84 See Glasenapp, von 1925: 297; Schubring 1935: 26 ($17), and Jaini 1980: 232. 85 For this see Bollée "Notes on Middle Indo-Aryan Vocabulary III” (forthcoming). -
Perhaps the Jain interest in Cāņakya (for whom see Chandra and Mehta 1970 s.v.
Canakka) is connected to Kodāla, Mahāvīra's brahmin father. 86 Ayar 2,15,4. 87 Harivamsa cr. ed. 47 - 48; BhāgPur 10,2,8. See also, c.g. O'Flaherty 1975: 206
- 213 and Spratt 1966: 302 (according to whom "the psychoanalytic view (of the embryo transfer) is that it is intended to diminish the hostility between father and son"). Further, Printz 1925: 124 expresses doubt as to a direct borrowing from the Krsna legend.

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Devaki, for, in the Antagaḍadasão 3,8 §11 sqq. Devai, consort of Vasudeva, the king of Bāravai (Dvāravati), bore him six sons. Harinegamesī, however, seized them in order to transfer them to the rich lady Sulasā's womb. Because she gave birth only to still-born babies, she had had an image of the deity made and she worshipped it daily, intending to induce him to perform the said operation - everything conditioned by karman, of course.
89
With the inclusivism typical of the Indian way of thinking, Harinegames here unites the positive qualities of a bringer of children, as was expressed as early as the ṚV Khilāni ad 10,8488 with negative ones of a demon who seizes children, as he is known to Suśruta.8 In Vedic texts the deity is called Nejameṣa, but in the Mbh Naigameya and Naigameṣa, whereas Suśruta only knows of the latter form. Finally, a Mathura inscription has Nemesa; this means that the form ending in -eya may be due to a scribal error.
The name itself is nowhere explained, nor is the he-goat's (chagavaktra; Suśruta, Uttarasthana 36,2 ajanana) or ram's face (Id. 37,2 meşânana [cty. eḍaka-mukha]) the latter, adopted by PWB, probably being a later contamination, as the ram belongs to Varuna.90 The hegoat, however, especially belongs to Agni1 whose son is called Skanda or (Sanat)kumāra and his grandson Naigameṣa.92 Skanda, said to be Siva's son, is appointed general of the gods by Indra." Perhaps in
88 See Scheftelowitz 1906: 130. Here a woman says: Néjamesa, pára pata sú-putraḥ púnar á pata/asyai me putrá-kāmāyai gárbham á dhehi yáḥ púman // "Nejamesa, fly away and quickly return with an excellent son. Get me with child (...) !". - As the exposure motif as a symbol of the procedure of birth is known also to Indian stories (see, e.g. Bollée 1967: 138; 140), one can ask if Nejameșa is considered here a bird, like the stork with us. See e.g. Rank 1909: 88 sq., Fodor 1949: 144, and Neumann 1962: 22.
89 Śarirasthana 10,52. At Uttarasthana 37,2 Suśruta mentions scholars who assume two Naigamesas since a divine being generated by Agni and Rudra would not cause a dangerous disease. He himself, however, thinks that Naigamesa only shows his ugly side if the child's family is derelict in its religious duties (loc. cit.). See also Winternitz 1895: 149 sqq.
90 Mbh cr. ed. 12,79,6 ajo 'gnir, Varuno meṣaḥ.
91 SB 6,4,4, 15; SkandaP 6,4 Agneyam Kṛttika-putram Aindram kecid adhiyate,/ kecit Pasupatam Rudram; yo 'si so 'si: namo 'stu te.
=
92 Mbh (Poona, 1929) 1,66,24 VisnuP 1,15,116. Cf. Mbh cr. ed. 3,215,23 Agnir bhutva Naigameyaś chaga-vaktro bahu-prajaḥ/ ramayāmāsa saila-stham bālam (Skandam) kriḍanakair iva and 3,217,1 Skandasya pārṣadan ghoran śṛṇusvadbhutadarśanan/ vajra-prahārat Skandasya jajñus tatra kumārakāḥ / ye haranti siśūn jätan garbha-sthamś câiva daruṇāḥ.
93 See Banerjea 1956: 363, 367 and 562; Mani 1975: 748; Sontheimer 1987b: 124. - On the multiple transfer of Śiva's semen see Mani 1975: 747 and O'Flaherty 1980:
171.
94 Mbh cr. ed. 7,5,37.

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Mathurā this already complex figure, which was adopted by the Jains and under the influence of Vişnuism, obtained the name Harinegamesī, i.e. 'Naigameșa merged with Hari.995 Thus it can be explained that Indra, who in Jainism and Buddhism became a devoted servant of the respective Jina, orders his commander - both a seizer and a bestower of children - to perform such a fitting operation as was the foetus exchange for him.
As to the etymology of the name and its consequences for the presentation in pictorial form of Hariñegamesī, whose fiery character, which is not only destructive, as we have seen, but also positive erotic and promoting fertility), reach back to Agni, the following observations become relevant. The ancient Jaina theologians of course did not place great value on preserving the memory of the fact of their having come under vaişņavite influence, and thus the two parts of the name, Hari and Negamesin (as the middle Indo-Aryan form must be) were joined into one compound. Thereupon, commentators (intentionally ?) analysed it in the wrong way, viz. in harina 'deer' and, apparently, *egamesin, whatever that in their opinion may have meant. Here I must rely on a footnote in Hermann Jacobi's Kalpasūtra translation,96 as the Panjikao is not at my disposal. Thus, in Jaina art Nejameşa's he-goat face turned into Hariņegamesī's deer head. Harinegamesī's Hindu counterpart is Parivartaka (Márkandeya Purana 51,14).98
There remains the question concerning the background of the whole motif in Jaina mythology. It is completely different from the Herodes motif in the Mahabharata story. Connected with this I believe is also the idea that future Jinas and Buddhas must be reborn in ksatriya families only - though this apparently was not always the case, as becomes evident in the Jaina legend, and as the Nidānakathā explicitly teaches us.99 Among the five main considerations (mahā-vilokana) before being reborn, the Bodhisatta Gotama also thinks of his future family as follows: Buddhas are reborn neither in a Vaisya family nor in one of Sūdras, but in these two families only, viz. either in a respected kşatriya or in such
95 Liebert 1976: 102 takes the name to mean 'Hari, i.e. Indra, as Negamesi.' 96 Jacobi 1884: 227. 97 of Jinaprabha 1913 (Jacobi 1879: 25). 98 Apparently, demons exchanging foetuses are male, whereas those who take away
new-born children (and occasionally devour them) are female, e.g. Jāta-hāriņī in
MarkPur 51,106 sq. and 76,9. 99 Ja I 49,22 sq. - For a further development of this idea in mediaeval Jainism see Merutunga's Prabandhacintamani p. 83,9 with regard to young Căngadeva, who later became famous by his monastic name Hemacandra: (Sri Devācāryas) tadanga-pratyangānām jagad-vilaksanāni laksaņāni preksya "ayam yadi ksatriya-kule jātas, tadā sārva-bhauma-cakravarti; yadi vanig-vipra-kule jātas, tada mahamätyah; ced darśanam pratipadyate, tadã yuga-pradhāna ida Kali-kale 'pi KŢta-yugam avatārayati sa ācārya" iti vicārya (...).

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a brahmin family. Nowadays a ksatriya family is respected. Into that I shall be reborn.100 The apparent irrelevance of karman - also as regards the choice of the aim in life: whether to become a Buddha or a Cakravartin - could point to a certain antiquity of this conception. Can it be a reminiscence of pre-Vedic times in Magadha, of fluid dividing lines, exchange, and rivalry between Brāhmaṇa- and Ksatriya-Vrātyas
A characteristic of Jainism is its static nature, which manifests itself, e.g. in the above dream visions and in the staring statues of saints. It is found already in the womb, where Mahāvīra, who is conscious of his descent from heaven, of his embryonic status and of his transfer, 101 does not move out of pity for his mother until she thinks he is dead. Then he moves a little and, unlike the Bodhisatta, resolves not to go forth in his parents' lifetime (Kappa $94). The latter detail, which is not found in the Ayāranga, seems odd in this context. However, a person destined to become a hero can only fulfil his mission after the death of his mother.102 The case of the Bodhisatta did not require such a vow, as his mother was destined to die much earlier in any case.
Eventually, after nine months and seven and a half days103 Mahāvīra is born in an apparently normal way under an auspicious constellation and a great lustre of descending and ascending deities (Āyār 2,15,7),104 at night in the beginning of summer. Then devas105 and demons in animal form from Vessamaņa's/Kubera's realm, 106 the auspicious north, that is, produce a downpour of money, jewelry, fruits, etc. The Agama does not elaborate on the bearing posture but - e.g. on a fresco in the Vardhamāna temple in Tirupparuttikunram near Kāñcipur in the Vijayanagar region, where, as a rule, at least nowadays women stand upright when giving birth107 - the birth of the first and of the last Jina takes place in a crouching position behind a curtain covering the lower part of his mother's body.108 On the occasion of the birth, not only the
100 Cf. Jaini 1985: 84. 101 Āyar 2,15,5 and Kappa 83 refer to his knowing to descend, Āyar 2,15,5 and Kappa
$29 to his transfer. As to the time of the exchange there is a marked difference between the two canonical texts in that according to Ayar Mahāvīra knows of the
moment, whereas according to Kappa he does not. 102 Neumann 1962: 154 where it is stressed that not the hero's real mother as such,
but his mother as the representative of the Great Mother is meant. 103 This is the average with the Jains, see Schubring 1935 $95. 104 See on this light the critical remarks of Eliade 1976: 96. 105 Ayar 2,15,8. 106 Kappa Jinac $98. 107 Cf. the 18th cent. wooden sculpture in Mookerjee and Khanna 1977: 171. 108 I owe this information to the kindness of Anna L. Dallapiccola, who here refers to an
incorrect observation made by Thomas in his unpublished thesis (1979: 335, panel 17 (1:17]). Here, he discusses Ramachandran 1943: 82 and plate XI (Rşabhadeva)

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usual amnesty of the sympathetic-magical kind, 109 and a grand popular festival take place, 110 but there is also - after ten days of childbed impurity, the purification ritual on the 11th day, 111 and the naming festival - a family banquet and an exchange of gifts, possibly of potlatching nature. 112
Returning now to Buddhism, we hear of the Bodhisatta descending from heaven into the womb of his 40-50 year old mother accompanied by a radiant brightness in the universe. 113 As to the descent, Buddhaghosa says, "Though knowing 'I shall fall from the world of the gods' yet he was not conscious of the process itself. He was aware of having been reborn, but could not remember entering a new body." Other monks, however, did not share this opinion, which also involves the moment of death - as is the case with the Jains.114 Relevant Theravāda and Jain data when collected systematically may be taken into account in our thanatology, along with the discussion on possession going on here in Heidelberg at present, in which only East Asian material, especially from Amida Buddhism, and case studies from India have been evaluated so far. 115
The Pali canon does not elaborate on the manner of descent, but since Buddhaghosa there is in Tusita a pleasure grove (Nanda/na-vana) where the being to be reincarnated is seen off by the gods with the words: "Have a good course !"116 The text emphasizes, that all the worlds of the gods have such a grove, but it does not deal with its significance .117 Gods "die" in that they shrink and become sad only to dematerialize eventually. Does the reincarnand retire into this wood in order to save the other gods an unpleasant sight ? Why, then, is it called Nanda-vana? Or can it be a state of preparation, perhaps like the Anūpiya mango grove, where the Bodhisatta spent a week enjoying the happiness of his pabbajjā before entering Rājagaha ? It can, however, just as well be a mechanical adoption from Hinduism of a divine, esp. Indra's, garden (PWB).
and XII (Vardhamāna). 109 Kappa $100. 110 Kappa $102. 111 Cf. Jolly 1901 843. 112 Āyar 2,15,11 and, in greater detail, in Kappa $103-105. Similarly in Divy 282 (see
Schlingloff 1962: 20). 113 Windisch 1908: 111; Eliade 1965: 33. 114 Sumangala-vilāsini 430,15 sqq. (not Ja I 50) and cf. Vism 548. 115 See M. Schröter, Nahtodeserlebnisse - eine wissenschaftliche Deutung (working
title). 116 Sv 430,12 su-gatim gaccha! 117 Cf. Kirfel 1920: 230 sq.

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Māyā sees her son sitting118 or even standing, 119 then gives birth to him after a full ten months, not after 9 or 10, as is the case with other children. The canonical Pāli texts explicitly stress this.120 Besides, she does so in an upright position after plucking a flower from a tree 121
Queen Māyā's erect posture is emphasized already in the canon as something special, something not done by common women.122 This is interesting in connection with the fact that in modern gynaecology the delivering posture in general and the standing posture in particular have been much discussed of late. Its outcome was the insight that the specific surroundings and cultural development of primitive tribes also essentially shape childbirth circumstances. The way of living of these tribes and the specific bearing postures they practice are not natural as in the case of animals - quasi instinctive - but they are acquired by their whole mode of life; they represent an expression of a traditional social system that seems to be frozen, as it were, in its development.123 Though tradition does not allow us to make a relevant statement as to the Säkya Queen, her standing posture may, nevertheless, not be selfdetermined. DN II 14, however, tells us that the lords of the quarters receive the child first, before the humans, which can mean that Queen Māyā was delivered without any assistance. Women of the Benín (Africa), as Richard Burghart informed me, consider a birth in a standing position to be particularly heroic. Did the Sākya women share this view ? So much for the old tradition in Pāli.
Yet in the Mahāvastu the Bodhisatta suddenly comes into being, in a non-physical way, out of Māyā's right side, 124 without splitting it
118 Ps IV 181.21 sqq.(Mātā) nisinnam Bodhisattam kucchi-gatam taco paticchädetum
na sakkoti. Olokentiya ca bahi thito viya pannayati (30 ...) Bodhisatto pana antokucchi-gato mataram na passati, na hi anto-kucchiyam cakkhu-viññānam uppajjati = Sv 436,18 sqq. In art, this has never been represented, as far as I know, c.g. in the way Marx Reichlich depicted the Christ child in his mother's womb (1502; see, e.g. Lechner 1981: plates 231-234) to which Johann-Michael Fritz (Heidelberg) kindly drew my attention. Embryonic animals, however, are known in Indian art from prehistoric and historical rock shelters in Bhimbetka, Satkunda and Ramchaja south and cast of Bhopal (sce, c.g. Neumayer 1983: 75d and 77h [bovid with foetus
inside body), 77a and 77g (antelope with foetus]). 119 Muu I 144,3 sqq. 120 D II 14; M III 122. Cf. the discussion in Printz 1925: 119 sqq. 121 Usually, trees like the aśoka here (thus Lüders 1941: 62 against Ja I 52,24 sq.,
where it is a śāl trec. See also Printz 1925: 126.) flower when touched by a lady's foot; here we have the case of a woman delivering after touching a tree with her hand. See, e.g. Bollée 1983: 238 and now also Syed 1990: 77 sqq. - For the symbolism implicd I refer to Eva Tornow's forthcoming study Das Geburtsmotiv in
den altindischen Religionen (working title) 122 DN II 14; MN III 122. 123 See Hauffe/Köster-Schlutz 1987: 395. 124 Muu II 20,14 > Windisch 1908: 121. - Hieronymus, The Christian Father of the

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open, which may emphasize the miraculous character of the birth of the Bodhisatta. From the point of view of psychology of religion, a birth through the (right) side is, on the one hand, a shift from below, i.e. from the impure, upward, just as the birth of a hero takes place in a clean way, as is stressed in the texts.125 On the other hand, it can be considered a degradation of the status of the mother, as higher beings are marked by an out-of-the-way coming into existence. Such an exceptional birth is known, apart from the case of Indra's mother, e.g. in the Matsya Pur 157,39 sq., when Umā, Siva's consort, gives birth to the six Kārttikeyas, and of Süravantī bearing Birobā (see Sontheimer 1989a: 104). A still higher upward shift is shown by a Nepalese statuette of the 18th century that features the Bodhisatta jumping from his mother's armpit like Kaksīvat in the Buddhacarita I 10126 (cf. already the seasons, ghi, etc. produced from Prajāpati's armpits).127
As soon as the gods have placed the Bodhisatta on the earth he takes seven strides to the north, reminding us, on the one hand, of a king's three strides at his rājas ūya,128 thus imitating Vişnu's three strides in the RV, for, this god clears the way for somaholic Indra's battle against Vrtra, the primaeval Ouroboros, and, in this way, favours the cosmic order that Indra is about to establish. Further, Gotama was after all a prince who could also have become a ruler.
Buddhism adopts this battle, adapting it as the Bodhisatta's battle with Māra; the former by virtue of his final emancipation emerges victorious.129 At the same time, one cannot help but think of the marriage ritual, though it seems difficult to connect it with the Bodhisatta's strides. The commentators explain them allegorically and thus, for us, unsatisfactorily. They may, therefore, be taken as a step up of Vişnu's strides, 130 rather than of those of Alexander the Great in a Caucasian folk tale. 131 Keith (1920: 503) compared the seven steps of the young Gotama to those of the mother-to-be of Christ and holds them to be
Church (4th cent.) already mentions this, adding that the mother is a virgin. See
also, e.g. Neumann 1962: 133. 125 DN II 14; Windisch, Id., 127 and 138. 126 See Bollée 1983: 265 and cf., e.g. Franz, von 1982: 75. 127 TB 2,2,9,7; see Minard 1956 $874; 918. 128 TS 1,8,10g. 129 See Bollée 1977: 371-381. 130 Kirfel 1920: 23* "auf dic Idee der Dreizahl folgte die der Siebenzahl." 131 As Ruben 1944: 70 thinks referring to Dirr 1920, No. 259. - Eva Tornow has
reminded me of Sakuntala 7,33, where Mārīca prophesies that his grandson will be a cakravartin and rathenanuddhāta-stimita-gatinā tirna-jaladhih/ purā saptadvipām jayati vasudham a-pratiratah.// That would be an interesting counterpart to the Bodhisatta here, also because of tīrna- jaladhih. Pāli literature, however, to my knowledge, does not know of an earth consisting of seven islands the idea apparently being brahminic (see Kirfel 1920: 57).

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ethnic.
At the seventh stride the Bodhisatta utters the (metrical) words of an "eminent person" (as nowadays Windisch's rendering by "indem er die stiergleiche Rede von sich gehen ließ" is translated) ,132 viz. aggo 'ham asmi lokassa (DN II 15 etc.). The expression asabha 'eminent person' (CPD) does not only remind us of a melody used at magic rites in order to acquire power and sung to the words of a rgvedic Indrahymn, 133, but also of the sound of a bull-skin kettledrum in use at the Mahāvrata ritual, where it is said: "The bull is the highest sound.o134 In post-canonical times this becomes, "He sang the song of victory."135 As can be seen, e.g. from Ja V 360,28, where scha-nada is said of a bird, it should not be rendered by 'lion's roar' and even less, of course, by 'halleluia' (PED), but as given in PWB: 'ein Wort, das ich mit Selbstvertrauen ausspreche und auf das man sich verlassen kann.'
The Tipitaka uses siha-näda with regard to the Buddha, 136 just as he is also called Sakya-siha 'Lion among the Sākyas', his tribe. Yet it is interesting here, that in late Vedic Simha-nada-nadin is the epithet of a form of Rudra-Siva, 137 whereas in the Jaina Siddhanta it is the Asura Camara who expresses himself in this way before his attack on Indra.138 More than once, as will be seen below, non-orthodox religions reflect first Saivite and later Vaişņavite influences.
According to tradition, Māyā - as in Christian mythology the mother of St. George the dragon slayer - died after seven days - thus apparently in childbed. This possibly historical fact must have been too ominous to be accepted by the faithful. In the Pāli canon no explanation for it is given, and it seems to contradict a passage stating the resistance on the part of prince Gotama's mother (!) and father though they knew of his glorious future: Gotamo a-kāmakānam mātā-pitunnam assu-mukhānam rudantānam (...) pabbajjito (DN 115,18 sqq.). But this may be an oversight on the part of the redactor of the text. In Ja I 52,2 and Mvu II 3,9 sq. the reason is that, after giving birth to a Bodhisatta, sexual intercourse does not befit his mother any longer, whereas the La
132 Windisch 1908: 131. 133 PVB 9,2,15 = JB 1,222 "abhi tra ursabhā (suté) sutám" (RV 8,45,22) ity ärşabham
kşatra-säma ksatram eväitena bhavati. 134 Paramä värsabho väk, JB 2,404 (Caland 1919 &165 = p. 215 "Der Stier ist der
höchste Klang"). 135 Rhys Davids' (1880: 156) translation of Ja I 53,19 āsabhim vācam nicchärento
siha-nädam nadi. 136 Hiltebeitel 1978: 775 note 27 connects the sihanada with the Bodhisatta's numerous
animal laksanas, which remind him of the numerous postures in classical yoga that are named after animals and thus suggesting an affinity between yoga and the
assimilation of powers of those animals. 137 AV Par 36,1,15. 138 Viy 3,2, p. 147 line 24.

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litavistara (98,3) states that her death in childbed was not the child's fault, but was due to the shortness of her life span. For otherwise, her heart would have been broken at the departure of the adult Bodhisatta in search of a teacher.
Little Gotama was taken care of by his mother's sister Mahāpajāpatī, as, for different reasons, Tisalā took care of Vaddhamāņa. Thus, in a way, both the Jina and the Buddha had two mothers, something, which, according to Jung (1976 $494 sqq.) and Neumann (1962: 132 sqq.) is an essential item of heroic myth. Ananda's story in the Märkandeya Purāņa ch. 76 is a similar case of dvi-mātstva..
Now Nyberg (1938: 7) and Widengren (1965: 102) assume that the Buddha-vita for its part influenced the eastern Zaraluštra legend. Comparing the relevant Persian tradition to the Buddhist Jātakas, as Widengren demands, will not get us much further. Besides, he may mean the birth and life of Gotama Siddhattha in certain Indian texts other than the Jātakas. Moreover, one wonders that he does not mention Windisch's book Buddha's Geburt. Furthermore, details such as the statement in the late Dēnkart (7,1,56 sqq.), that Zaraluštra's native village was quite bright three days before his birth, and the old legend in Yašt 17,18 sq. that Zaral uštra was the only child who laughed when he was born, at any rate only occurs of the Bodhisatta in the Mahāvastu.139 On the other hand, a similar phaenomenon to the bodily marks of the Indian Mahāpuruşa (vide infra) are not found in the culture of ancient Irān. This is all the more striking as they were known of in Sakian-Khotanese140 and Tokharian.141
Though we meet with Vaddhamāņa Mahāvīra and Gotama Siddhattha, motwithstanding the peculiar circumstances of their births, as human beings in the respective canonical traditions, they were deified very early. This, too, was a result of the belief that before their present existences they stayed in a heaven, and that their descents were accompanied by special phenomena in the sky, and that the gods took an active interest in their passing away - in the case of the Buddha they stood packed together around his deathbed. 142 The Jains, for their part, began to perform pūjā in front of statues for the Jinas as if they were Hindu gods and later to speak of Mahāvīra as Gurudeva.
Something similar developed, as is well-known, in the Buddhist Mahāsānghika school as a precursor of Mahāyāna.143 Typical of the deification process may also be the male proper name Buddhadeva (MW)
139 Widengren, Ibid., p. 101; - Printz 1925: 127 sq. 140 See Leumann 1920: 116-122; Bailey 1963: 91 sq. 141 See Couvreur 1946: 577-610. 112 Bolléc 1984: 177 note 27 (which should read: Kalpasūtra $125 f.). 143 Glasenapp, von 1936: 57 et passim.

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and the fact that in the lists of the 32 bodily marks (laksanas) of a mahāpuruşa, which we shall now discuss, the feet are dealt with first, gods as well as great men (like kings) being looked up to from below, for, the viewer is lying at their feet. This begins already in AV 10,2. Ordinary humans, however, are looked at the other way around. The 84 anulaksanas ('secondary marks') follow the main bodily characteristics and, as it were, comment upon them.
One remark may yet be made in this context. Indian scholastics know of four postures, viz. walking, standing, sitting and reclining.144 The latter posture is unheroic, because it is the posture of the dead and of sleeping people, though after his transition into parinirvana the Buddha is depicted and worshipped in the reclining position.145 Indra, however, in his fight against Vstra, is moving in an upright position - the erect divine hero against the horizontal animal (tiryak),146 for Vrtra is lying in 99 coils around the cosmic mountain (RV 5,29,6).
In RV 10,90, Purusa, the thousand-footed Cosmic Man whom the gods sacrifice, in my opinion stands ten fingers over the earth without touching it. His mouth becomes the brahmin (10,90,12), yet out of his mouth emerges Indra (10, 90,13). This creation hymn, which stresses sacrifice, brahmin primacy, and the secondary rank of Indra, and thereby of the warrior class, already shows clear evidence of a transition toward the Brāhmaṇa literature. Furthermore, the cosmic giant reminds one of course of the Jainist concept of the universe as an erect human-woman or man - as well as of erect Jain ascetics like Bahubali in Sravaņabelgo!a.
Indra's successor, Prajāpati, is standing when the Brahman strikes the Evil off him which is perhaps represented by the hair on his head.147 This, then, would be a Vedic justification for the tonsure of the Buddhist monks and for the Jaina monks' even pulling out their hair. The hair is also a substitute for the head, which the hero has to sacrifice before he can be reborn in a higher state ?118
The Bodhisatta defends himself in an upright position in meditation against Māra, who wishes to prevent him from reaching final emancipation.149 This yogic posture, which is visible already on seal
144 E.g. AiB 7,15,3. See also Bollée 1983a: 112 sqq. and cf. RB 1912: col. 1142 line
10 sq. 145 Cf. Hiltebeitel 1978: 775 note 27; 783 note 47, and 787 note 64. Filliozat 1967: 75
stresses the meaning of the direction of the head toward the north. 146 The Rgveda uses the word mrga only. 147 JB 2,369 (Caland 1919 $160). In Baudhés 17,40 hair is equated to Evil. See also
Onians 1954: 108. 148 Neumann 1962: 159; 59 sq. 149 Cf. Bollée 1977: 377.

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150
No. 420 in Mackay's list and was formerly ascribed to "Proto-Siva", is taken by Hiltebeitel to belong to "Proto-Mahisa" 151 But, perhaps, it is safer to designate it as proto-Indian as does Sontheimer (1987b: 124). The same padmasanaalso marks the statues of Jinas, whereas standing Buddhas may be adaptions of Yakṣas an association aided by the wellknown fact that the Buddha as well as the Mahāvīra often stayed in or near Yakṣa shrines. Besides, the Buddha,152 as also Indra,153 is called Yaksa himself, and the pipal tree under which the Buddha reached his bodhi is also found on seal No. 335 in Mohenjo Daro.
The marks of the body are a product of brahmanic speculation on the physical externals of the ideal man and were adopted by Jains and Buddhists alike. Initially, they may go back to Nārāyaṇa and Indra, perhaps even to certain pre-Vedic concepts. In the course of the Vedic period prognostic teachings must have developed probably first in a magical context, in order to enable brahmins to ward off evil from the ritual and recitation. Teachings of this kind may have begun in the fourth Veda, as is shown by the Atharvaveda-parisista.
As to the number 32, this, perhaps, has to do with a tradition of 32 154 The ākāras, i.e. parts of the body as found, e.g. in the Pāli Tipitaka.15 references made by Weber (1878: 334 note 5) are of little help, whereas Jolly does not deal with the topic at all in his Medicin. - Besides, the portents at the Bodhisatta's birth are also 32 in number .155 In the Mahabharata, however, there is a list of 16 marks of Nara and Nārāyaṇa, seers in the sphere of Visnu.15 156 Since Burnouf dealt with the lakṣaṇas of the maha purusa he was probably the first to do so in the West - in the 8th Appendix to his translation of the Saddharmapun darikasutra, they have undergone several treatments - complete and partial ones which, however, with one exception, deal with the Buddha. For, only Weber157 compared the person of the Mahavira with the Buddhist lakṣanas described by Burnouf. In doing so he could not but rely on Malayagiri's Sanskrit commentary on the Surapannatti - a representation of the activity of the sun and the moon in the Jaina Siddhânta - for, Leumann was the first scholar to edit the text containing the canonical list of the Jaina lakṣaṇas in his Aupapātika sutra (1883). This list
150 Mackay 1937-38.
151 Hiltebeitel 1978: 767-797, esp. 775 sq.
152 See Bollée 1977: 377.
153 Ja IV 4,11*.
154 DN II 293 sqq. etc. (see CPD s.v. ākāra 7).
155 Ja I 51,3-28 (cf. Lalit [L.] 85,11 - 86,17).
156 Cr. ed. (Poona, 1974) 12,331, 24 sqq.
1571867: 306 sqq. Later (1883: 377 sqq.) he refers to Leumann, yet in his description of the contents of the Aupapatika he does not mention the physical description of the Tīrthamkara at all.

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does not correspond either in its wording or in its order to Malayagiri's list, which is more than a thousand years later.
Comparing the Jaina with the Buddhist laksanas, we first notice that - after some general features such as physical constitution, beautiful shape, condition of the flesh, purity and shine of the bodily appendages - the Jains treat the particulars of the body from top to bottom. There also occur some duplications and variants. Further, the laksanas are not always identical with those of the Buddha, and their description most often does not contain simple compounds like dīghanguli 'having long fingers resp. toes' or eni-jangho 'with antelopelike legs', but varnakas, i.e. in principle endless units of metrical prose. Thus, the depiction of the hair on Mahāvīra's head is a compound three and a half lines long in Latin transliteration. Strikingly, the compiler of this tradition and the redactor of the Aupapātika were not worried by the fact that, according to tradition, Mahāvīra at his pabbajjā pulled out his hair in five tufts - a praxis that may still take place when a novice enters the order, but otherwise seems to have fallen into disuse nowadays. In this connection mention may be made of the name Kesi (in the Rāyapasenaijja) which is peculiar for a monk.
The removal of one's own hair means the renunciation of sexuality, just as baldness or cutting off someone else's hair means castration as a punishment for adultery. Thus, e.g. Indra branded his son and charioteer bald after the latter's intimacy with Indra's wife Sacī.158 The foregoing is also founded on a concept that the late London Latinist Onians proved, inter alia, in Greek culture in his highly erudite study
The Origins of European Thought - sperm was for the Ancients a fluid which, like the soul, originated in the head. Its abundance - says Aristotle in his Problemata 867a 23 sqq. - causes the growth of hair. This would explain that a person about to join a religious order and thus to give up a layman's sexual activity, cuts off his hair. In this way, and by abstinence, the sperm accumulates, producing a kind of hydrocephalus - a protuberance more or less visible on pictures and statues of the Buddha and the Jina: the uşnişa. Further, as Hertha Krick (1982: 88 sq.) points out, the ritual haircut connects dedication to the deity by sacrificing the Self and returning vital power with separation from the past in order to be prepared for a new life period.
The fact that, in spite of cutting off or pulling out their hair, both are nevertheless depicted with hair may be taken with Wendy O'Flaherty (1980: 45)159 to mean that "the rich supply of semen stored in the
158 JB 3,199. 159 She apparently refers to articles by E.R. Leach and G. Obeyesekere, the former of
which is missing in the bibliography (p. 356), whereas the latter is not available to me.

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yogi's head is symbolised by his high-piled hair; his powers, like those of the seduced Samson or the macho Sikh with his topknot, reside at the top of his head, in the 'snakelocks,' that characterize the Sadhu." Rśyaśnga, too, belongs to this category.160
The point of departure of the above two scholars is BAU 6,4,4 sq., which reads that the man who spills his seed puts it either in the middle of his chest or between his eyes. Later, in Kundalini-yoga, these places are the anāhata cakra161 - where Vişnu 162 and the Jinas have a śrīvatsa (possibly a fertility symbol: frog or woman giving birth),163 statues of the Buddha sometimes have a svastika164 - and the ajñā cakra which appears among Buddhist laksanas as ürņā, a circle of hair be tween the eyebrows. From the latter the seed rises up to the highest cakra at the crown of the head, the very spot of the cosmic man's (or woman's) head, where the Jains believe the liberated souls abide. Related to this topic are such otherwise inexplicable words as urdhva-reta(s), 165 ürdhva-manthin,166 and urdhva-linga167 all of which mean 'sexually abstinent,' though etymologically the sense should in fact be 'ithyphallic.' However, "the phallus that draws up its seed is symbolic of the perfect man."168
Before concluding with these brief remarks on two of the laksaņas on the Mahāpuruşa's upper body - elsewhere169 I have dealt with some marks on his feet that go back to Indra and Prajāpati - this note on the birth of the hero in ancient India, I shall return briefly to the name Mahāvīra. In a Hindu context nowadays it usually stands for Hanumān. The earlier occurrences of this use of the word seem to be in the Skanda-purāna, e.g. 3,36,189; 37,5 namo 'stu te, Mahā-vira, (...) Vāyu-putrāya, te namah; 46,23; in the Längulópanişad (Upanisatsamgraha II 214, 21) namo Bhagavate canda-pratāpa-Hanumate mahavīrāya; and in Bhavabhūti's (8th cent.) Mahāvīracarita 5. Later, in Hindi literature, we find the word in the Rāmcaritmānas of Tulsīdās
160 Cf. O'Flaherty 1973: 50. 161 See, e.g. Mookerjee 1982: 11, 13, 43 et passim. 162 Mbh cr. ed. 12,329,42,2. 163 See Bolon: 1983, to which Anna L. Dallapiccola kindly drew my attention. Cf.
perhaps the 11 cent. C.E. sculpture in the Alampur Museum (Mookerjee and
Khanna 1977 : 181). 164 As, e.g. in the Kek Lok Si temple near the village of Ayer Itam on Pulau Pinang.
It has been under construction for about a century now in a syncretistic or pan
buddhist style and is the largest pagoda complex in Malaysia. 165 TaittĀr 10,12,1; MaitrīUp 2,3; Mbh cr. ed. 1,13,10; 13,17,45 (Nīlakantha: a-vipluta
brahmacaryah); 13,74,35. 166 TaittĀr 2,7,4. 167 Mbh 13,17,45 (Nīlakantha: adho-lingo hi retaḥ sincati, na türdhra-lingah). 168 O'Flaherty 1973: 44. 169 Bollée 1977: 372 et passim.

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(1,33,5 and 9). The authors may have conferred this title on Rāma's devotee on the strength of enumerations of Hanumān's good qualities in Vālmīki's Rāmāyana 7,36,43 sqq., where sauvīrya is ascribed to him, and a passage such as Rām 6,128,32 vānaraḥ manuşam vigraham krtvā (said of Sugrīva's elephant corps mounted by monkeys in human shape proceeding to Lankā). Hanumān is also called Langūr Vir.170 Mahāvīra is further found as the name of a son of BỊhadratha (Rām 1,71,7), and, in the last century, as that of the man who revived Buddhism.
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