The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [356]
8. Then the brahmin student Uttara thought: “The recluse Gotama is endowed with the thirty-two marks of a Great Man. Suppose I were to follow the recluse Gotama and observe his behaviour?”
Then he followed the Blessed One for seven months like a shadow, never leaving him. At the end of the seven months in the country of the Videhans, he set out to journey to Mithilā where the brahmin Brahmāyu was. When he arrived, he paid homage to him and sat down at one side. Thereupon, the brahmin Brahmāyu asked him: “Well, my dear Uttara, is the report that has been spread about Master Gotama [136] true or not? And is Master Gotama one such as this or not?”
9. “The report that has been spread about Master Gotama is true, sir, and not otherwise; and Master Gotama is one such as this and not otherwise. He possesses the thirty-two marks of a Great Man.
Master Gotama sets his foot down squarely—this is a mark of a Great Man in Master Gotama.
On the soles of his feet there are wheels with a thousand spokes and ribs and hubs all complete…
He has projecting heels…
He has long fingers and toes…
His hands and feet are soft and tender…
He has netted hands and feet…
His feet are arched…
He has legs like an antelope’s…
When he stands without stooping, the palms of both his hands touch and rub against his knees…
His male organ is enclosed in a sheath…
He is the colour of gold, his skin has a golden sheen…
He is fine-skinned, and because of the fineness of his skin, dust and dirt do not stick on his body…
His body-hairs grow singly, each body-hair growing alone in a hair socket…
The tips of his body-hairs turn up; the up-turned body-hairs are blue-black, the colour of collyrium, curled and turned to the right…
He has the straight limbs of a Brahmā…
He has seven convexities...855
He has the torso of a lion…
The furrow between his shoulders is filled in…
He has the spread of a banyan tree; the span of his arms equals the height of his body, and the height of his body equals the span of his arms…
His neck and his shoulders are even…
His taste is supremely acute...856
He is lion-jawed…[137]
He has forty teeth…
His teeth are even…
His teeth are without gaps…
His teeth are quite white…
He has a large tongue…
He has a divine voice, like the call of the Karavīka bird…
His eyes are deep blue…
He has the eyelashes of an ox…
He has hair growing in the space between his eyebrows, which is white with the sheen of soft cotton…
His head is shaped like a turban—this is a mark of a Great Man in Master Gotama.857
Master Gotama is endowed with these thirty-two marks of a Great Man.
10. “When he walks, he steps out with the right foot first. He does not extend his foot too far or put it down too near. He walks neither too quickly nor too slowly. He walks without his knees knocking together. He walks without his ankles knocking together. He walks without raising or lowering his thighs, or bringing them together or keeping them apart. When he walks, only the lower part of his body oscillates, and he does not walk with bodily effort. When he turns to look, he does so with his whole body. He does not look straight up; he does not look straight down. He does not walk looking about. He looks a plough-yoke’s length before him; beyond that he has unhindered knowledge and vision.
11. “When he goes indoors, he does not raise or lower his body, or bend it forward or back. [138] He turns round neither too far from the seat nor too near it. He does not lean on the seat with his hand. He does not throw his body onto the seat.
12. “When seated indoors, he does not fidget with his hands. He does not fidget with his feet. He does not sit with his knees crossed. He does not sit with his ankles crossed. He does not sit with his hand holding his chin. When seated indoors he is not afraid, he does not shiver and tremble, he is not nervous. Being unafraid, not shivering or trembling or nervous, his hair does not stand