________________
Personality of Lord Mahavira and his Sermon at Champa
67
between two fingers. His fingers were developed, soft and good. His nails were copper-red, pure, shining and polished. His palms bore the emblem of the sun, the moon, the conch, the wheel and the svastika.
His chest was as shining as the surface of a gold slab, wide, flat, fleshy and vast. It had a svastika mark. Because of a plump frame, the bones of his ribs were not visible. The body had a golden tinge, and was graceful and free from disease. It bore 1008 auspicious marks indicating his greatness. His sides had become slender from the chest down, and were proportionate, graceful well-built, neither more nor less, well covered with flesh.
On the chest and the abdomen, there were rows of hairs, straight, well arranged, fine, dark, soft, delightful and glazy. His abdomen (the cavity of the belly) had good and strong muscles, like those of fish and birds. He enjoyed the gift of perfect organs of senses and intestine. Like a whirlpool in the Ganga, like a wave taking turn to the right, like a lotus blossomed in the rays of the sun, he had a deep and grave navel. The middle part of the body was slender, like a trident, or a mace, a handle of a golden mirror, or of an axe, best and thunder-like. The waist was round, free from ailment, perfect like the waist of the finest elephant or lion.
The secret parts of the body were well built, like those of a horse. Like the body of a pedigree horse, his body remained untouched by urine and stool. His movement was like that of a best elephant, vigorous and confident. His thigs were like the trunk of an elephant. His knees were like the lead of a round box, deep and invisible. The legs beneath the thigs were like the legs of a deer, or like youiss called kurubinda, or like a spindle, round and slender in the downward direction. His ankles were beautiful, well set and covered. His feet were nicely fitted like those of a tortoise. The fingers were in order, from big to small and small, and so on. The nails on his feet were tender and red like a lotus. (As aforesaid), the body bore 1008 marks of the great hero.
His legs bore the emblems of a mountain, a city, a crocodile, an ocean and wheel, the very best among the emblems. His beauty had some speciality of its own. His glow was like that of smokeless fire, or an extended lightning or the rays of the early morning sun. He had absolutely stopped the inflow of karma, was wholly