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CANONS & SYMBOLISM
[PART LX
canons and almost invariably obtained on Tirthańkara images of the Kushan age, but not on the polished (Mauryan) torso from Lohanipur or the standing early Pārsvanatha bronze in the Prince of Wales Museum, which I have assigned to a period before Christ (see above, pp. 87-88, plate 37).
It seems that marks on soles of feet and palms of hands and the srivatsamark on the chest, etc., taken from traditions of maha-puruşa-laksanas, came to be regarded as chief characteristics of a Tirthankara image. The texts describing the śāśvata-Jinas do not refer to garments on the figure of the Jina. No early Jaina texts refer to the lists of mahā-puruşa-laksanas so common in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit texts and other Buddhist works. However, the Aupapātika-Sutra, an Upānga Agama text, giving the stock description (varnaka) of Mahāvira's body, which is to be regarded as common to all Agamas, gives a very interesting description of Mahāvira's body, which agrees, often in similar phraseology, with the mahā-puruşa-laksanas of early Buddhist texts.
According to the Aupapātika description of Mahāvira's body," Mahāvira's height was seven cubits, and the frame of his body as strong as the vajra, his breath fragrant like the lotus and he was handsome to look at. The body was free from sweating and such other defects. The front of his head (agrasiras) was strong and high like the peak (kūtākära)," the hair on the head being dark and of thick growth, lying in schematic curls (pradakşināvartta). The scalp of the Lord, resembling a bunch of pomegranate-flowers, was pure and smooth like gold; his head was shaped like an umbrella (chattrakāra); his unsullied forehead (lalāța) possessed the lustre of the new moon, being clear and even; the face was perfect and shining like the moon, ears lovely, proportionate and good, the cheeks healthy and full. His eye-lashes, thin, dark and smooth, looked beautiful like a bent bow, the wide eyes resembled the full-blown white lotus, each eye-lash having a white hair; his nose was long, straight and uplifted like that of an eagle; his lower lip looked lovely and red like the coral, the cherry or the bimba-fruit; the rows of teeth, lustrous like the white moon, conch, milk, etc., were complete, unbroken, indistinct and smooth; his palate and tongue shone like red-hot
1 A paper giving analysis of the Jaina wid Buddhist descirptions was read by the author before the International Congress of Orientalists which met in New Delhi in 1964, and was sent for publication in the Vogel Commemoration Volume, which has unfortunately not yet been published. A free translation of the Aupapărika account is therefore added above becausc of its obvious importance.
Aupapatika-sūtra, sūtra 10, and commentary of Abhayadeva, pp. 26-42. * Does this include the conception of usnisa?
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