Mahapadanasutta 1.32

Mahapadana Sutta (Dialogues of the Buddha) 1.32

Language: English

1.32.5

'"And what, my lord, are the thirty-two marks of the ' Great Man 1 wherewith endowed this child hath two careers open to him, and only two: — that of the Lord of the Wheel... that of Buddha Supreme?
' " This babe, my lord, has feet with level tread 2. That this is so counts to him as one of the marks of a Great Man.
"'On the soles of the babe's feet wheels appear with a thousand spokes, with tyre and hub, in every way complete. That this is so counts to him as one of the marks of a Great Man.
' " This babe has projecting heels [3 ],
He is long in the fingers and long in the toes 4,
Soft and tender in hands and feet,
With hands and feet like a net 5.

1.32.7

His ankles are like rounded shells 6;
His legs are like an antelope's 7.

1.32.8

Standing and without bending he can touch and rub his knees with either hand.
His male organs are concealed in a sheath.
His complexion is like bronze, the colour of gold.
[is] His skin is so delicately smooth that no dust cleaves to his body 8.

1.32.1

1 Given also at M. II, 136, 137. Comp. the note above Vol. I, p. no. The whole theory is pre-Buddhistic.
2 Suppatthita-pado: literally, 'well-planted feet.' The traditional meaning is, that the whole under-surface touched the ground at once. The Great Man was ' flat-footed,' and did not toe or heel the ground in walking.
3 If the foot of a ' Great Man ' be measured in four parts, two are taken up by the sole and toes, one is under the leg, and one is the heel projecting rearward.
4 And all four, fingers and toes, are of equal length, like a monkey's. Cy.
5 Like a lattice, says the Cy., and explains this to mean that there is no 'webbing' between fingers and toes, but that these are set in right lines, like the meshes of a net.
6 Ensuring the maximum of flexibility. Cy. This is desirable in sitting cross-legged.
7 With protuberant well-modelled joints, like an ear of rice or barley. Cy.
8 Hence the Buddhas only wash as an example to their fol- lowers. Cy.
The down on it grows in single hairs, one to each pore,
The small hairs on his body turn upward, every hair of it, blue-black in colour like eye-paint, in little curling rings, curling to the right.
' " This babe has a frame divinely straight 1.

1.32.2

He has the seven convex surfaces 2.

1.32.3

The front half of his body is like a lion's 3.

1.32.4

There is no furrow between his shoulders 4.

1.32.6

His proportions have the symmetry of the banyan- tree 5: — The length of his body is equal to the compass of his arms, and the compass of his arms is equal to his height.
His bust is equally rounded 6.

1.32.7_2

His taste is supremely acute 7.

1.32.8_2

His jaw is as a lion's 8.

1.32.10

He has forty teeth 9,
Regular teeth.
Continuous,
The eye-teeth very lustrous. His tongue is very long 10.

1.32.131

1 He will not stoop, nor lean backward, as if catching at the stars, nor have a crooked spine, but tower up symmetrically like a golden tower-gate in a city of the gods. Cy.
2 The backs of the four limbs, the shoulders and the trunk are well fleshed. Cy.
3 i. e. proportionately broad and full.
4 Citantararhso, lit. he has the shoulder-interval filled up. The Cy. explains, the two sides of the back have no depression in the middle, nor look separated, but from the small of the back upwards the fleshy covering is as a level golden slab.
5 Literally, he has the banyan circumference. It was believed that a banyan always measured the same, like the diameter of a circle, in height as in width.
6 Samavattakkhandho. According to the Cy. the exterior of the whole vocal apparatus is here meant, rather than the trunk or shoulders only.
7 Rasaggasaggi.
8 That is, with the lower jaw relatively fuller than the upper. Cy.
9 That is, the Great Man at a more adult stage has eight more than the normal thirty-two. How the learned brahmins saw these signs in the babe is not explained.
10 See 'Dialogues,' I, 131.

Linked texts (1)

Mahāpadānasutta — Pāli