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श्रमणविद्या
The thirty-two mahāpuruşalakṣaṇas and the eighty anuvyañjanas of the Buddha are of the great interest not only from the point of view of the study of Buddhist art and sculpture--they are represented in many Images of the Buddha--but also from the view-point of the Buddhist theory of the inviolability of karmic results of good and bad actions. It is believed by the Buddhists that every good deed brings forth good result not only in the mental but also in the physical realm. And this is what we find in the Buddhist concept of mahāpuruşa. Every good action performed by the Buddha in the past as a bodhisattva gave rise to the appearance of beautiful physical marks on his body. The texts tell os that each mark is the result of a hundred merits done by the Buddha in the past (ekaikam punyasata jam).
The Mahāyāna Buddhism attaches greater importance to these categories and in its concept of the Trikāya (three bodies of the Buddha), the laksanas and anuvyañjanas receive special importance in the sambhogakāya.5 Although the concept of the sambhogakāya is purely Mahāyānic, the seeds of the theory of the mohāpuruşalaksanas can be traced back to the early Pali texts also. In the Dighanikāya, the Lakkhana-sutta deals specifically with the concept of Mahāpuruşa possessing the thirty-two signs. In this sutta it has been clearly stated that if a person is endowed with the thirty-two marks of a great man and lives the life of householder he becomes a righteous king and cakravarti ruler and if he goes in the state of homelessness (anagāriyam), he becomes an arahant and a sammāsambuddha 6 In the Pabba jāsutta of the Suttanipāta also there is a reference to the Buddha being endowed with laksanas although the number of the laksanas (32) is not mentioned. But in the Vatthugatha in the same text, there is a reference to the number thirty-two.8
In the various other suttas also the thirty-two laksanas are mentioned but there are no references to the eighty anuvyañ janas in the canonical
4.
Abhidharmakośa, IV. 110a. Cf. also : Saikapunyasatodbhūtam ekaikam laksanam muneh-Abhidharmadipa, kārikā 242. CF. Dvätrimsallaksanāsītivyañjanātinā muner ayam
Sāmbhogiko mataḥ kāyo mahāyānopabhogatah|| Aloka, p. 537 Cf. DN. Vol. III, p. 110. Cf. Pabbajjā-sutta, verse 5, Suttani pata, p. 329. Cf. Vatthugathā, verse 25. Ibid, p. 421.
ra qf797-9
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