Elements of Buddhist Iconography c6.53

c6.53

35 (page 20). Summarized more fully, "the lotus-leaf is a basis (pratiṣṭhā), for it is this earth (pṛthivī), and earth is a basis . . . this same earth is Agni's womb (yoni) . . . one who is not thus supported (pratiṣṭho na bhavati), he is as it were unsupported in a far country." Cf. the epithet supratiṣṭhapāda, "with firm-based feet," applied to the Sambhogakāya Buddha, Maitreya-Asaṅga, Uttaratantra, II, 16, where it may be taken for granted that the Buddha is understood to be lotus-seated. Cf. J., I, 53, paṭhaviyaṃ patiṭṭhāya, "standing on the ground," corresponding to the iconography of the Nativities, in which the infant Bodhisattva is usually represented as standing on a lotus.