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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.