Maha Buddhavamsa - Explanations of the thirty-two major marks II

Maha Buddhavamsa
The Great Chronicle of The Buddhas
by Tipitakadhara Mingun Sayadaw

Edited and Translated by
U Ko Lay and U Tin Lwin

16. The mark of the fullness of flesh in seven places of the body, the two upper parts of the feet, the two backs of the hands, the two shoulders and the neck

      Other persons have their insteps, backs of the palms. etc., where the arteries manifest swollen and distinct in wavy patterns and are like a network. The bone-joints are also visible at the edges of the shoulders and also in the neck. On seeing them therefore other people would think that they are like petas (ghosts), those dwellers of the cemetery having ugly shoulders, protruding neck-bones and swollen arteries.
      It is not so in the case of the noble Bodhisatta. There is fullness of the flesh in the aforesaid seven places. Fullness of flesh does not mean that the flesh has puffed up to the point of ugliness. It is the fullness which is just elegant, which just makes the arteries not conspicuous and the bones not protruding. Therefore the Bodhisatta has no arteries puffed up in the insteps of the feet and on the backs of the palms, and also no bones thrusting out at the edges of the shoulders and in the neck. He has the neck that is like a small well-polished golden drum. Because of the fullness and elegance in the said seven places of the body, he appears in the eyes of the onlookers like a wonderfiully carved stone image or like an exquisitely painted portrait.

17. The mark of the full and well-developed body like a lion's front portion:

      The front portion of the lion is fully developed; but the back part is not. Thus the back part is not given as an example here, and the comparison is only with the forepart. Though this example is given, it is not that there are such unseemly features in the Bodhisatta's body as are to he found in the lion's, namely, bending, rising, sinking, and protruding and so on in certain parts of the body. In fact, the limbs of the Bodhisatta are as they should be: long where they should be long, short where they should be short, stout where they should be stout, lean where they should be lean, broad where they should be broad, round where they should be round, and thus his limbs are the most becoming and the most beautiful. The likeness of the Bodhisatta's body cannot be created by any master craftsman or any superman.

18. The mark of the full and well developed back of the body extending from the waist to the neck like a golden plank without any trace of the spinal furrow in the middle:

      This briefly means that the back of the Bodhisatta is particularly developed and magnificent. The flesh over the ribs, the flesh on both left and right sides of the back and the flesh in the middle of the back are well formed and graceful from the waist up to the neck.
      The surface of the back of the other people look split into two sections. The spine and its flesh in the middle remain sunk and depressed; or it is curved; or it comes out and becomes bulging. The flesh on either side of the middle backbone appears convex and straight like a split bamboo placed in a prone position. The flesh at the edges of the back is thin and slight.
      The Bodhisatta is different. The flesh on either side and at the end of the spine, that on the ribs, on the portion underneath the shoulders and along the middle of the spine, are all fully developed from the waist to the neck without any trace of a long cut in the middle. And so, the surface of his back is full with layers of flesh like an erected plank of gold.

19. The mark of the symmetrically proportioned body like the circular spread of a banyan tree, for his height and the compass of his arms are of equal measurement:

      Just as a banyan tree with its trunk and branches measuring fifty or a hundred cubits has its vertical length and its horizontal length equal, even so the Bodhisatta's height and the length of his arms stretched out sideways are of equal measurement (which is four cubits). (The height and the length of the two arms of other people are generally not equal.)

20. The mark of the proportionate and rounded throat:

      Some people have their necks which are long like that of a crane; other people have their necks which are curved like that of a paddy-bird; still others have the necks which are pudgy, swollen and large like that of a pig. When they speak, veins around the necks puff up, looking like a meshed netting, and their voice comes out feebly and faintly.
      The neck of the Bodhisatta is like a well-rounded small drum. When he speaks, the network of veins is not visible. His voice is loud and booming like the sound of thunder or a drum.

21. The mark of the seven thousand capillaries with their tips touching one another at the throat and diffusing throughout the body the taste of food even if it is as small as a sesamum seed:

      The seven thousand capillaries whose upper ends interconnected forming a group, lie at the throat; they appear as though they are waiting to send down the taste of all the swallowed food throughout the body. When the food even as small as the size of a sesamum seed is placed on the tip of the tongue and then eaten, its taste diffuses all over the body. That was why the Bodhisatta was able to sustain his body with a mere grain of rice or with just a palmful of bean soup, etc. during his six-year long practice of austerities (dukkaracariya).
      Since it is not so in the case of others, the nutritious essence of all the food eaten by them cannot spread all over their bodies. For this reason, they are much exposed to diseases.

22. The mark of the lion-like chin ( somewhat like that of one who is about to smile):

      This chiefly means to draw a comparison only with the lower chin of the lion. Only the lower jaws of the lion has fullness; his upper jaw is not so well formed. Both the upper and lower jaws of the Bodhisatta, however, are full like the lion's lower jaw. They are also comparable to the moon which rises on the twelfth of the bright fortnight.

23. The mark of the teeth numbering exactly forty

      What is meant is that the Bodhisatta has twenty upper teeth and twenty lower teeth, making a complete set of forty teeth.
      As for others, those who are said to have a complete set of teeth possess only thirty-two in all. The Bodhisatta, however, excels others by having forty teeth, twenty upper and twenty lower.

24. The mark of the teeth proportionately set in a row:

25. The mark of the teeth touching one another with no space in between:

26. The mark of the four canine teeth white and brilliant as the morning star:

      Other persons have some teeth protruding and some short and depressed, thus forming an irregular set. On the contrary, the Bodhisatta has even teeth, like pieces of mother-of-pearl uniformly cut by a saw.
      Other people have the teeth which are separated from one another or which have gaps between one another like those of a crocodile. Therefore, when they eat and chew fish, meat, etc., the gaps are filled up with particles of food that are stuck in them. It is not so in the case of the Bodhisatta. His teeth stand like diamonds properly fixed in a series on a plank of gold or coral.
      Some canine teeth of other people are in a decaying state; thus they are blackened or discoloured. But the Bodhisatta's four canine teeth are extremely white; they are endowed with the kind of brilliance which surpasses that of the morning star.

      (In this connection, it may be questioned as to how the learned Brahmins knew the characteristics relating to these teeth when in fact the teeth had not come out yet in the newly born Bodhisatta. The answer is: The learned Brahmins who read the body-marks on the authority of their Brahmanical book observed the likely place where the teeth would grow, and in anticipation of what would certainly take place on the Bodhisatta's coming of age, they predicted as though the teeth had already grown).

      (Here something about the treatise on the marks of a great man will again be told as given in the exposition of the Ambattha Sutta and others. On the eve of the appearance of a Buddha, Brahmins of Suddhavasa abode inserted the science of prognostication in the Vedic books. Proclaiming that "these form the prognostication about Buddhas", they gave instructions in the Vedas under the disguise of Brahmins. In the work on the marks of a great man that contains the prognostication about Buddhas, the physical marks of those who would become Buddhas, Pacceka Buddhas, Aggasavakas, Eighty Mahasavakas, the mother and father of a Buddha, his noble attendants or a Universal Monarch are mentioned completely. Therefore the description of the marks of a great man directly occurs in these ancient Vedic texts.
      But after the Buddha's attainment of Parinibbana, the treatise on the marks of a Great Man that came into existence by virtue of the Buddha's glory gradually disappeared, starting with one or two gathas. in the same way as the light generated by the sun gradually disappeared after sunset.)

27. The mark of the long, flat and tender tongue:

      The tongues of other people may be thick; they may be small, short, rough or uneven. Contrasting with them, the Bodhisatta's tongue is very soft, long, broad and beautiful.
      To make the meaning more explicit: The characteristics of the Buddha's tongue could not be seen easily by those wishing to study them after his attainment of Buddhahood. So, in order to dispel the doubts of the youths, Ambattha, Uttara and others, who had come to investigate them, the Buddha demonstrated the softness of his tongue by curling and rolling it round to look like a hard pin (or to look like a rolled food coupon) and then by stroking with it the two sides of the nose; he demonstrated its great length by stroking with it the passage of the two ears; he demonstrated its breadth by covering with it the whole surface of the forehead right up to the edge of the hair. (The tongues of ordinary people cannot come out from the mouth more than one inch.)

28. The mark of the voice having eight qualities as a Brahma's:

      Other people have voices which are intermittent, cracked and unpleasant like the caw of a crow. In contrast with them, the Bodhisatta is endowed with a Brahma-like voice. To make it more explicit: the Brahma's voice is pure and clear because it is not effected by bile or phlegm. So also the Bodhisatta's organs of articulation such as the throat, palate, etc. are purified and cleansed by virtue of his accumulated acts of merit. Because of such purity and cleanness, the sound that originates at the navel comes out with clarity, it possesses eight qualities. They are:

     1. distinctness,
     2. intelligibility,
     3. sweetness,
     4. pleasantness,
     5. roundedness,
     6. compactness (it does not go beyond audience),
     7. deepness (it is not shallow but forceful), and
     8. resonance.

      What is in fact extraordinary, marvellous and astonishing about this voice is that it is a hundred times, nay, a thousand times sweeter and more pleasant than the extremely melodious voice of a karavika bird. To elaborate: the cry of the karavika is slow, drawl, long protracted and pleasant; it is full, compact and sweet. While sitting on an upper branch of a tree, it warbles, and then it moves onto a lower branch; yet it is able to hear the sound it has made while on the upper branch: so slow and pleasant is its cry.
      Having cut open a luscious ripe mango by biting with its beak and drinking the juice that flows out, the karavika warbles; then the four legged animals get intoxicated with the karavikas sound (as though they were rendered unconscious by drunkenness) and begin to gambol with great delight. Other quadrupeds too, that have gone to the grazing ground and are eating and chewing the grass, forget the food in their mouth and stand still, listening to the sound uttered by the karavika. Small animals such as deer, antelopes, etc., who are on the run in fear, fleeing for life as they are chased in great haste by beasts of prey such as lions, leopards and tigers, having forgotten the danger to their lives, stop running only to listen to the karavika's voice without lifting up the foot that has been put down and without putting down the foot that has been lifted up. In the same way, the wild beasts who have been chasing to pounce on their prey become unaware of the food which they are about to eat, stop chasing and listen only to the karavika's cry. Birds flying in the sky spread their wings and stop flying to listen. Fish in the water also keep their hearing organs steady and stop to listen to the song of the karavika. (Buddhavamsa Commentary.)
      (Please see the story of the karavika's sound and Queen Asandhimitta in the Anudipani of this volume.)

29. The mark of the very clear blue eyes:

      This does not mean to say that both eyes of the Bodhisatta are blue all over. The expression is made as a general statement. In fact, where they should be blue they have the colour of aparajita flower; where they should be yellow and golden they are like the colour of kanikara flower; where they should be red they are like the colour of bandhuka flower; where they should be white they are like the colour of the morning star; where they should be black they are like the colour of black beads. The eyes of the Bodhisatta bear resemblance to an open window in a golden mansion—the window that has the motif of a lion made of rubies at its base. (According to the Jinalankara Tika, the likeness is that of a palace window that has a lion's figure made of rubies and fixed at its bottom on the golden wall.)

30. The mark of the very soft and tender eyelashes like a newly born calf's:

      This particular mark is termed gopakhuma lakkhana in the Pali Text. The Pali word gopakhuma refers to the eye (the whole eye) comprising the eye lashes and other parts of the eye. Of all kinds of calves, the eye of a black calf is thick and turbid. That of a red calf is particularly clear and bright. Here in the case of gopakhuma lakkhana, it signifies the eyes of the new born red calf. The eyes of other people are not perfect.
      Like the eyes of elephants, rats or crows, some have protruding eyes, and others have eyes with deep sunken eye-sockets. The Bodhisatta's eyes are different. They are like thoroughly washed and polished ruby stones and have soft and smooth tender, fresh, bluish eyelashes growing in a row. This mark of the entire eye is characterized by the eyelashes. (This mark is in effect a description of the whole eye with reference to the eyelashes which form only a part of the eye. What is meant is that the Bodhisatta had the eyes which are not protruding, nor sunken but are clear like ruby stones kept well-washed and polished; with eyelashes which are soft, smooth, tender, fresh and bluish, growing in a row like those of a newly-born red-coloured calf.)

31. The mark of the hair between the two eyebrows (unnaloma):

      This hair grows gracefully in the middle of the two eyebrows, directly above the ridge of the nose and at the centre of the forehead. It is pure all over like the Morning Star. It is as soft as the cotton wool ginned and refined a hundred times and dipped in clarified butter. It is white as the colour of simbali, silk-cotton. When it is stretched from the tip with one's hand, it is two cubits long. When it is released from the hand, it coils back clockwise with the tip curling upwards. It is of beauty that attracts and commands veneration of every onlooker like a silver star studded on a pure gold plate, or like pure milk flowing out of a golden vessel, or the Morning Star in the sky that reflects by the sun light at dawn.

32. The mark of the thin layer of flesh that appears by nature like a gold headband on the forehead.

      What is meant is that the Bodhisatta has a perfect forehead as well as a perfect head.
      The forehead: the thin layer of the flesh on the forehead of the Bodhisatta covers the whole of it rising from end to end, i.e. from the top part of the right ear to the left. This particular layer of flesh being soft, golden in colour, lustrous and extensive on the entire forehead is graceful like a gold band fastened to a royal forehead. In fact, the gold band on a king's forehead (the royal insignia) is an imitation of the forehead of a Bodhisatta for use as a sign of royalty by kings who have no such natural feature). (This is an explanation of how the Bodhisatta is endowed with the perfect forehead).
      The head: the head of the Bodhisatta is perfect in all aspects. Unlike the Bodhisatta's, the heads of others are imperfect. Some look like a monkey's as though they were broken in two parts. Others seem to have cracks. Still others have so little flesh that they appear as skulls just covered by the skin. There are also heads disproportionate like a gourd, and there are still others which are curved at the back or protruding (with the occiput bulging). In contrast with them, the Bodhisatta has the head of perfect fullness like a golden baluster as if it had been carved out with a round chisel to make it round, smooth and beautiful.

     (This thirty-second mark is mentioned in the Text as unhisasiso. Its meaning can be taken in two ways: (a) having a head which looks as though it were wrapped by a thin layer of flesh on the forehead, and (b) having a round splendid head like a headband made by an expert. Because of its dual meaning, the explanations of both the perfect forehead and the perfect head are given here.)

      (The kamma and other factors that bring about these thirty-two major marks are separately discussed in the Anudipani.)
     Here end the explanations of the thirty-two major marks.