India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c11.s3.17

c11.s3.17

*BELIEFS*—Belief in divination from bodily signs is mentioned in *sūtra* III.2.52 (*Lakshaṇe jāyā-patyoshṭak* as read with III.2.53). The marks on the body of the husband or the wife were believed to have effect in respect of each other, *e.g.* *jāyāghnas-tilakālakaḥ*, 'the black mole indicative of wife's death'; *patighnī pāṇirekhā*, 'the line on hand indicative of husband's death'. Probably this topic came under Aṅgavidyā to which references is found in the *Ṛgayanādi gaṇa* (IV.3.73), in the Brahmajāla sutta of the Dīghanikāya and some Jaina Āgamas.