Chapter 56 - The Buddhist images (bauddha-lakṣaṇa)

1. The characteristic features of the Buddhist images [viz., bauddha-lakṣaṇa] will now be described fully according to rules.

2. The Buddhist images should be made particularly movable like the Jain images.

3. They should be in the erect or the sitting posture, and be placed on the thrones (with decorations including the arch and ornamental trees).

4. They should be furnished with the holy fig tree, and the Kalpa (all productive) trees should be also constructed.

5. They should be given a pure white complexion and have a broad (full) face.

6. The ears should be long, the eyes large, the nose high, and the face smiling.

7. The arms should be long, and the chest broad and beautiful.

8. The limbs should be fleshy and fully developed, and the belly protruding and round.

9. The legs should be uniformly in the erect posture, the hands long, and the sitting posture (looking) comfortable.

10. They should have two arms and two eyes, and the crowned head sparkling with the (nimbus) uṣṇīṣa.

11. Thus should be made the (idols in the) erect posture, and those in the sitting and other postures should be made as said before.

12. In both the erect and the sitting postures, they should be clad in yellow clothes.

13. The upper half of the yellow left arm should be in a praying pose.

14-16. It (the image) should be either stationary or movable, and be made of wood, stone, and metallic substances^[1]; it may be carved in high relief (citra), middle relief (ardhacitra), or be painted (or in low relief, citrābhāsa) on a tablet or wall and be made of terracotta and grit.

17. Their limbs should be measured in the largest type of the ten tāla system.

18. The wise (sculptor) should make the rest as aforesaid, according to their (Buddhist) scripture (ā).

Thus in the Mānasāra, the science of architecture, the fifty-sixth chapter, entitled: “The Description of the Buddhist images.”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Gold, silver and copper (See Chapter 2-4).