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The Fordmakers
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slaughtering animals, in the samavasarana the gods, humans and animals all gather together in harmony to listen to the preaching of non-violence (AvNiry 562).
Mahâvîra As Great Man
Little interest is shown by the early texts in Mahâvîra's outward appearance. In the Aupapatika, however, there occurs an idealised picture, of the sort familiar from images and popular prints today, of a sleek and perfectly formed fordmaker whose body is in full conformity with classical Indian canons of male physique and whose internal organs are in a state of equilibrium. This description of Mahâvîra also delineates a variety of auspicious marks on his body and the royal paraphernalia which attended his progress (Aup pp. 25-37).
The model on which this description is based, used also by the Buddhists, is that of the cakravartin, the universal emperor whose birth, like that of all the fordmakers and the Buddha, is presaged by fourteen dreams seen by his mother which indicate future greatness. For Mahâvîra to have a variety of S emblematic marks on his body is a sign that he is a cakravartin, albeit not of the temporal world but rather of the spiritual realm, as a story in the Universal History makes clear. An astrologer skilled in interpreting bodily marks sees footprints marked with a wheel in the wet clay on the banks of the Ganges and follows them, thinking that a cakravartin has gone by who will reward him for service, and is astonished to come upon the ascetic Mahâvîra. The god Indra explains the situation to the astrologer:
You know the outer signs only, but there are inner signs also. The Master's flesh and blood are as white as milk, free from odour. The breath of his lotus mouth resembles the fragrance of a lotus; the Lord's body is healthy, free from dirt and perspiration. For this man is the Lord of the Three Worlds of earth, heaven and the intermediate region, an emperor of religion, benefactor of the world, bestower of safety, Mahâvîra. The emperors from whom you expect a reward are of little importance.36
The wheel which the astrologer saw on Mahâvîra's footprint is perhaps the best known of all the auspicious marks, usually being taken as symbolic of the totality of a religious path or of temporal
