Chapter 1
cubits). (The height and the length of the two arms of other people are generally not equal.)
(20) The mark of the proportionate and rounded throat.
Some people have necks, which are long like that of a crane; others have necks which are
curved like that of a paddy-bird; still others have necks which are pudgy, swollen and large
like that of a pig. When they speak, veins around the necks puff up, looking like a meshed
netting, and their voices come out feebly and faintly.
The neck of a Bodhisatta is like a well-rounded small drum. When he speaks, the network
of veins is not visible. His voice is loud and booming like the sound of thunder or a drum.
(21) The mark of the seven thousand capillaries with their tips touching one another at the
throat and diffusing throughout the body the taste of food, even if it is as small as a
sesame seed.
The Bodhisatta’s seven thousand capillaries, whose upper ends interconnected forming a
group, lie at his throat. They appear as though they are waiting to send down the taste of all
the swallowed food throughout his body. When the food, even as small as the size of a
sesame seed, is placed on the tip of his tongue and then eaten, its taste diffuses all over his
body. That was why the Bodhisatta was able to sustain his body with a mere grain of rice
or with just a palmful of bean soup, etc., during his six-year long practice of austerities
(dukkaracariyÈ).
Since it is not so in the case of ordinary people, the nutritious essence of all the food
eaten by them cannot spread all over their bodies. For this reason, they are much exposed
to diseases.
(22) The mark of the lion-like chin (somewhat like that of one who is about to smile).
This mainly means to draw a comparison only with the lower chin of the lion. Only the
lower jaws of the lion has fullness, his upper jaw is not so well formed. Both the upper and
lower jaws of a Bodhisatta, however, are full like the lion's lower jaw. They are also
comparable to the moon which rises on the twelfth of the bright fortnight.
(23) The mark of the teeth numbering exactly forty.
What is meant is that the Bodhisatta has twenty upper teeth and twenty lower teeth,
making a complete set of forty teeth.
As for ordinary people, those who are said to have a complete set of teeth possess only
thirty-two in all. The Bodhisatta, however, excels others by having forty teeth, twenty
upper and twenty lower.
(24) The mark of the teeth proportionately set in a row.
Ordinary people have some teeth protruding and some short and depressed, thus forming
an irregular set. On the contrary, the Bodhisatta has even teeth, like pieces of mother-of-
pearl uniformly cut by a saw.
(25) The mark of the teeth touching one another with no space in between.
Ordinary people have the teeth which are separated from one another or which have gaps
between one another like those of a crocodile. Therefore, when they eat and chew fish,
meat, etc., the gaps are filled with particles of food that are stuck in them. This is not so in
the case of the Bodhisatta. His teeth stand like diamonds properly fixed in a series on a
plank of gold or coral.
(26) The mark of the four canine teeth white and brilliant as the morning star.
Some canine teeth of ordinary people are in a decaying state, thus they are blackened or
discoloured. But the Bodhisatta's four canine teeth are extremely white, they are endowed
with the kind of brilliance which surpasses that of the morning star.
(In this connection, it may be asked as to how the learned Brahmins knew the
characteristics relating to these teeth, when in fact the teeth had not come out yet in
the newly born Bodhisatta. The answer is: The learned Brahmins, who read the
body-marks on the authority of their Brahmanical book, observed the likely place
where the teeth would grow, and in anticipation of what would certainly take place