The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c10.s8.1

c10.s8.1

Both the Mahāyānists and the Hīnayānists hold that a Buddha is one who is endowed with the thirty-two major and eighty minor auspicious marks known as "external characteristics" as enumerated in the Dharmasaṃgraha, attributed to Nāgārjuna. He must have in addition, three kinds of mental characteristics, namely, the ten Balas or forces, eighteen Āveṇika Dharmas or peculiar properties, and the four Vaiśaradyas or points of self-confidence or assurance.