Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c74.s3.34

v2.c74.s3.34

The bhūsparśa, on the otherhand, is particularly associated with Buddhist iconography. In this pose, the left hand rests on the lap with palm outward and the right with the palm inward touches the seat below. ‘This pose illustrates the story of Buddha’s calling the earth as his witness for testifying to his right to sit on the Vajrāsana under the Bodhi tree, which was challenged by Mara, just prior to his enlightenment’. Gründwedel has remarked that ‘certain hand postures attached themselves to particular legends and the position of the hands in the chief figure becomes an indication of the legend’ (Buddhist Art’, p. 177). This observation is mainly applicable to the two, *viz.*, the dharmacakra and the bhūsparśa mudrās, both these were principally connected with Buddhism and in the developed Mahāyāna Iconography they were the typical hand poses of the two Dhyānī Buddhas *viz.*, Vairocana and Akṣobhya, respectively. ‘The nearest of the latter pose in Hindu Iconography is to be found in the two-armed figure of Nara in the Deograha relief already noted, where the god is seated in the ardhaparyanka fashion on a raised seat with index and the middle fingers of his left hand touching his seat; but unlike the Buddhist mode of representing the mudrā, we find here the palm of the hand turned outwards’.