The Compendium of Kāśyapa 1.28: aṣṭāviṃśatitamo'dhyāyaḥ

Now we shall explain the chapter on Characteristic Signs.

Thus spoke the revered Kaśyapa.

‘By what characteristic signs, O Revered One, are children long-lived? / By which are they happy, by which miserable? By which should the physician recognise those who are short-lived?

How many are the mental constitutions of mortals, and what is the characteristic sign of the mental constitutions? / Whatever is praised or condemned in the body, let all that indeed be told.’

Having heard the speech [consisting of] five noble questions, Kaśyapa declared / the entire knowledge of characteristic signs, the mental constitution, the condemned and the praised:

‘Here indeed, O Vṛddhajīvaka, unctuous, thin, smooth, and copper-coloured nails of children

lead to sovereignty; thick ones belong to teachers; lined and long ones belong to the long-lived;

those resembling depressed oyster shells or chaff belong to the poor; rough ones to those partaking of misery; speckled ones to thieves;

white and round ones belong to the short-lived; cracked ones to the unfree; discoloured ones to the dissolute;

elevated, compact at the ends, and small ones belong to those partaking of happiness; with broad nails, he spoke of mediocrity;

thick, white, and uneven nails cause one to wander as an ascetic. With plump, well-planted feet possessing upward-pointing lines, they are long-lived, wealthy, and lords; with feet marked with the auspicious signs of the svastika, plough, lotus, conch, wheel, horse, elephant, chariot, and weapon, they are kings; with copper-coloured and unctuous feet, they are fortunate; with feet resting on the heels, they have middling wealth and lifespan; with white feet, they are penniless; with lineless feet, they are servants of others; with many lines, they are sickly.

With well-rounded and smooth heels, they are endowed with all good qualities; with deficient heels, they are short-lived,

bereft of offspring, and flat heels belong to adulterers. With long toes, nails, and feet, they are long-lived;

with short ones, they are short-lived. With dense toes, they are fortunate; with hidden joints, they enjoy pleasures;

with thick joints, they are teachers; with hairy toes, they are penniless. A rough, coarse, thin, uneven, cracked, and dirty heel is not praised. A dorsum of the foot that is elevated, devoid of visible veins, and hairless is praised;

an uneven and contrary one belongs to thieves. Ankles that are concealed, small, hairless, and devoid of visible veins

are praised; prominent and broad ones lead to loss of wealth and to great distress. A slender foreleg

is praised; a thick one causes destruction of husband, sons, wealth, and happiness, and belongs to a thief. Shanks that are not protruding,

veinless, and hairless are praised; dried up, thick, veinous, and hairy ones are the opposite,

and bring about widowhood in women. Knees that are concealed are auspicious. Thighs well-nourished with flesh

With hidden veins and smooth: these are praised. The buttocks, rounded, not sagging, free from sores, hairless, and symmetrical, are praised; dried up, they belong to childless women; sagging, they lead to destruction of the chief.

[buttocks that are] large lead to unchastity, while small ones belong to the virtuous. Deep, hairless, well-separated, and symmetrical loins are praised; hairy ones lead to wandering asceticism, but those with hair turning to the right

bring fortune, broad ones belong to the long-lived, and joined ones to the short-lived. Some hold that the hips being equal to the chest is praised; however, a wider chest is for boys and [wider] hips for girls, not

serving for mediocrity. Testicles that are hanging down and large, dark on a fair person, fair on a dark person,

dark-complexioned on a reddish person, reddish on a dark-complexioned person, hairy, and middling are recorded; plump ones are praised;

the opposite cause misfortune, loss of virility, and loss of offspring; some say very small ones belong to the short-lived and bring misery;

those shaped like [the testicles of] an ox, a donkey, a horse, a goat, or a sheep are to be understood as belonging to the fortunate and the long-lived. The male organ

that is soft, long, erect, large, with a copper-colored rounded glans, a large scrotum, and a large microchannel is praised;

thin, short, dangling, devoid of a prepuce, white, pale-black, sprawling, or curved to the left is unpraised.

Urine that is unimpeded, not thin, not scanty, and passed in a straight stream is praised; the reverse of that, extremely foul-smelling,

painful, excessively hot, discolored, passed at improper times, and soundless is unpraised; and in young girls,

passing urine that scatters or splatters brings childlessness to either. A vulva shaped like a cart leads to the acquisition of offspring; plump, to good fortune; elongated, to the destruction of offspring; circular, to infidelity;

upturned, to barrenness; needle-mouthed, to misfortune; intensely wide-open, constricted, or dry,

pendulous, irregular, or malformed, to the experience of distress; tight in the middle, to the birth of daughters;

raised, charming, and fleshy, to the birth of sons; well-marked [with characteristics], fortunate; excessively hairy,

causes widowhood; devoid of marks, infamy; possessing moles and adipose tissue, infidelity and wandering asceticism. Likewise, the line of hair coming to the middle from both sides, not too dense, is praised;

excessively thick leads to widowhood; with excessively thick and dense hair, to unchastity; grown downward, to misfortune; extending past the navel, to mediocrity. Both flanks being well-elevated is praised; hairy,

to wandering asceticism; full of prominent veins, to bad food; sunken, to poverty; even, to mediocrity;

elevated on the right, to the birth of a son; elevated on the left, the reverse. A slightly elevated belly that is neither flaccid, nor hard, nor too broad is praised; withered, leads to poverty; elevated, to enjoyment;

broad and uneven leads to uneven character and enjoyment; very withered is childless; and for a woman, plump below, veinless, excessively broad, and devoid of folds belongs to the short-lived; middling above the navel belongs to the short-lived; one-folded is fortunate; two-folded leads to gaining intelligence; three-folded,

to good fortune; four-folded, to offspring and long life; a belly with many folds is unfortunate and belongs to the short-lived. A navel that is deep, clockwise-turning, circular, elevated around, and devoid of hair, veins, and whirls is praised; pit-shaped and unelevated causes pleasure and pain; unevenly elevated is unwholesome for longevity; small-shaped is childless; situated away from its place leads to wandering asceticism; large,

deep, and elevated leads to sovereign authority. The anus is explained by [the characteristics of] the navel. The sides of the torso being rounded,

fleshy, smooth, and devoid of hair and veins are praised; with hair and veins, they cause wandering asceticism. The back

that is straight, broad above, veinless, hairless, and devoid of whirls is praised; sunken in the middle belongs to the long-lived; curved belongs to those partaking of sorrow; contracted belongs to the short-lived; hairy belongs to the unfriendly and those with few offspring. One with hairy shoulders is a merchant, a porter, a gambler, or an actor;

one with withered shoulders is poor; both of those are long-lived, and might even take to wandering asceticism;

one with smooth shoulders is a farmer; plump-shouldered, wealthy; hard-shouldered, heroic; loose-shouldered, unattached; high-shouldered is praised in a man; sloping shoulders in a girl [is praised]—in the opposite case,

there is loss of those qualities. Armpits that are elevated, broad, plump, and possessing good secondary sexual characteristics are praised;

the opposite are unfortunate, as are exceedingly hairy ones in women. Likewise, arms that are progressively fleshy, with hidden elbows, long, and touching the knees are praised; covered in prominent veins belongs to the long-lived;

possessing fine hair belongs to those with offspring; devoid of veins belongs to the childless; with transverse veins belongs to those living by toil;

possessing sesamoid moles cause wandering asceticism; possessing mole-marks, to quarrels. Wrists

that are thick are praised in a man; thin, in a woman. Three unbroken lines of barley-grain shape in both are praised: the first brings fortune, the second makes one foremost, the third,

to offspring and longevity; if all are unbroken, smooth, distinct, and deeply drawn, they lead to sovereignty; four belong to a royal seer, five or six to a father of a hundred sons, seven to celestial beings; even one, if unbroken and distinct, yields happiness. For women, excessively long and excessively short [wrist-lines] are condemned. The hair-bearing scalp being smooth, reddish, clean, and free from lesions is praised. Those with gaits like an intoxicated elephant, a bull, a lion, a tiger, or a swan become lords; those with steady gaits are fortunate; those with unsteady gaits obtain fluctuating pleasure and pain; sideways gaits are unfortunate; and those who stumble or jerk their limbs are unpraised. Likewise, excessively fair, excessively dark, excessively tall, excessively short, excessively emaciated, excessively stout, excessively hairy, completely hairless, excessively soft, and excessively hard are called unpraised in bodies. Likewise, in children, anger, crying, sleeping, waking, rage, joy, bodily evacuation, ingestion, digestion, firmness, and depth are praised when well-proportioned and endowed with superior qualities.

On this there are verses:
As the face, so the conduct; as the eye, so the mind; / as the voice, so the constitution; as the appearance, so the qualities. / The mental temperament is stated to be threefold, arising from goodness, wrath, and delusion; / and their status is declared to be superior, intermediate, and inferior, in order. / Their division will be explained in order as eightfold, sevenfold, and threefold. / Knowledge of the mental temperament of beings is beneficial in formulating medicine. / Devoted to asceticism, truth, compassion, cleanliness, and generosity; impartial, / endowed with knowledge and discernment, with senses conquered—one should recognise as Brāhma. / Having offspring, performing actions, virtuous, dear to the world, / free from envy, not deceitful, wise, clean—one should call Prājāpatya. / Devoted to cleanliness, vows, sacrifices, study, celibacy, and compassion; / with pride, intoxication, and anger conquered; an eloquent speaker—one should declare as Ārṣa. / Constantly devoted to the three aims of life, learned, heroic, an untiring worker, / an overlord, a ruler—they call this the eminent Aindra. / Free from deceit, fear, and anger; acting appropriately; an overlord; / impartial to friend and foe—one should certainly recognise as Yāmya. / Clean amidst impurity, heroic, quick to anger and quick to appease, / of virtuous conduct, highly fortunate, beloved of Varuṇa—is the Vāruṇa. / Desirous of rank, honor, attendants, righteousness, pleasure, and wealth; / bestowing the fruits of wrath and favor, mighty—they call this the Kaubera. / Knowing verses, narratives, and histories; fond of perfumes, garlands, and garments; / skilled in dance, song, and pleasantry; charming—they know this as Gāndharva. / And whatever other auspicious, pure states there are, they too are sāttvika. / This is the pure mental temperament, abundant in goodness, eightfold here. / Freedom from disease, tranquility, beauty, knowledge, discernment, nobility, / long life, accompanied by happiness—these are the general characteristics of the pure [temperament]. / An overlord, envious, fierce, fond of self-worship and deceit, / pitiless, terrible, a slayer, heroic—such is the Āsura. / Striking cruelly at weaknesses, continually filled with anger, jealousy, and impatience, / having enmity, meat-eating, and fatigue; seeking quarrel—is the Rākṣasa. / Hating the pure, impure, cruel, fearless, terrifying, turbid, / fond of liquor and meat, suspicious, a voracious eater—is the Paiśāca. / Sharp, full of fatigue, sleepy, having many enemies, / not prone to anger, timid, devoted to women, continually licking the lips—is the Sārpa. / Constantly endowed with and rejoicing in gifts, couches, excessive ornament, drink, food, and copulation; / a great eater—one should know as Yākṣa. / Arrogant, eating much, hostile, with deformed faces, / misshapen, deformed in mind, fond of night—are those of Bhūta temperament. / Agitated, eating contemptible food, with distressed speech, constantly suspicious, / fickle, dull-witted, timid, living in hollows—know as Śākuna. / Thus this rājasa mental temperament is sevenfold, produced by wrath; / and one should recognise passion as having mixed qualities and faults. / Devoted to food and copulation, prone to sleep, lacking intellect, / devoid of cleanliness and adornment—one should thus know as Pāśava. / Timid, unintelligent, agitated, fallen under the sway of desire and wrath, / harmful, selfish, with abundant offspring, deceitful—one should know as Mātsya. / Enduring slaughter, binding, distress, cold, wind, and heat, / devoid of intellect and limbs, lazy, upright—one should declare as Vānaspatya. / Thus this threefold tāmasa mental temperament arises from delusion; / and whatever is impure and unpropitious, all that too is tāmasa. / Know sattva to be illuminating, and rajas to be activating; / tamas is declared to be restricting; they are fond of mutual pairing. / Whichever is predominant in a person, that embodied soul is infused by it, / performs good and bad deeds, and experiences corresponding results. / Therefore, for infants, a wet-nurse of equal mental temperament is praised; / an opposite one causes agitation and terror, and is not praised. / In the case of an incompatible wet-nurse, they do not live, or if they live, it is with difficulty. / From equal temperament comes nourishment, longevity, strength, and happiness for infants. / Skin, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow, and semen are the bodily tissues; / vital essence and mind are all of them; but learn from me their essence. / Free from skin diseases, prosperous, with clear indications and complexion, / whose wounds heal immediately, with fine body hair—is one whose essence is skin. / One whose essence is blood has a ruddy glow—Only this much portion of the Sūtrasthāna is available.