Studies in Indian Art c12.s3.2

c12.s3.2

To the five Dhyāni Buddhas connected with the five senses it was natural that a sixth should have been added in the capacity of one presiding over mind, and as such an embodiment of the five senses collectively. According to the traditions developed in the old Vedic schools mind is the sovereign of the five Prāṇas. The five Prāṇas were identical with the five senses in the orthodox religious schools, and it is no wonder if the Buddhists also worked on the same solid foundations. To impart a symmetrical character to the Pantheon, the five Dhyāni Buddhas were connected in course of time by the Buddhist thinkers with the five mudrās or poses of hands, which the great Sage, Gautama Buddha, had used on different occasions and which consequently were used in Buddhist art to symbolise the great events of his life. Or still further, on account of the number five, they came to be related with the five vargas or groups of consonantal mutes, viz., क्, च्, ट्, त्, and प् and similarly with the five seasons and the five quarters (viz., the four cardinal points plus the centre).