Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra

The ushnisha (, Pali: ''uṇhīsa'') is a protuberance on top of the head of a Buddha. In Buddhist literature, it is sometimes said to represent the "crown" of a Buddha, a symbol of Enlightenment and status the King of the Dharma.

Description

250px, Head of the Buddha, crowned by the ushnisha, 3rd century, Hadda, Afghanistan

The Ushnisha is the thirty-second of the 32 major marks of the Buddha, wherein the Buddha is said to have a fleshy or cranial protuberance at the top of his head. It is sometimes elaborated that it is covered with hair that curls to the right.

In art of Southeast Asia, a flame is sometimes added that ascends from the middle of this protuberance.

Representation

250px, Flame Ushnisha, 14–15 century, Sukhothai, Thailand

Buddhist art from Gandhara in the 1st century CE often represent the Buddha with a topknot, rather than just a cranial knob. It is thought that the interpretation of the ushnisha as a supernatural cranial protuberance happened at a later date, as the representation of the topknot became more symbolic and its original meaning was lost.

Origins

The portrayal of Śākyamuni Buddha with an ushnisha has varied throughout history and varied by school. The Sri Lankan Tamrashatiya school, which would later give rise to Theravada, portrayed him as bald and having an ushnisha extending into the sky, beyond the possibility of measurement. The Gandharan school of Buddhism, sometimes portrayed Śākyamuni sporting a cluster of long wavy hair or curls as a topknot concealing the ushnisha.

The Bodhisattva-Cakravartin

The '' Mahāvastu'' (1.259f) and the '' Divyāvadāna'', as well as the Theravadin '' Milindapañha'', describe some marks of the cakravartin, an idealised world-ruler, as consisting of an or turban, a parasol, a "horn jewel" or vajra, a whisk and sandals. These were also marks of a kshatriya.Falk, Harry, "Small-Scale Buddhism" in , p. 495

The art of early Mahayana Buddhism in Mathura presents bodhisattvas in a form called "wearing a turban/hair binding", along with mudras that represent the nonviolent rule of a cakracartin.

Possible Indus Valley origins

A bull figurine excavated from Lakhan-jo-Daro from the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilization has a similar ushnisha-like knob above its head. This is a unique feature which may indicate a visual portrayal of intelligence.

Mahāyāna

The uṣṇīṣa seems to be one of the most valued of all a Buddha’s thirty-two marks. The ''Ratnamegha Sūtra'' provides a list of meritorious qualities of a Buddha’s body, starting with his hair follicles, the first twenty-nine marks in general, the urṇa, and finally the uṣṇīṣa, which is only surpassed by the Buddha’s voice.

The '' Bhadrakalpika Sūtra'' lists six qualities of the uṣṇīṣa that accord with the Buddha’s six perfections he accomplished as bodhisattva:

As stated above, one quality of the uṣṇīṣa is that it cannot be seen from above. The common rendering of this in Sanskrit is “anavalokitamūrdhatā” (lit. “the top of the head is not looked upon”).

The ''Tathāgatācintyaguhyanirdeśa Sūtra'' contains a story of a bodhisattva who came from another buddha land to worship Śākyamuni. Using his supernatural powers, he flew upward past several more buddha lands and was unable to reach the top of the uṣṇīṣa.

The Pali tradition seems to recognize this trope as well, apparent in the ''Commentary on the Suttanipāta'' and the ''Commentary on the Hemavata Sutta''. According to these texts, there was an episode when the yakṣas Sātāgiri and Hemavata were traveling in the sky to an assembly of yakṣas. They were forced to stop full flight and land, because they had encountered the space that would have otherwise placed them directly above the Buddha’s head.

When the light that issues forth from a Buddha’s mouth returns to his uṣṇīṣa, it is a sign that he will give a prophecy of the eventual Buddhahood of someone in the audience.

See also

* Urna
* Sahasrara
* Sitātapatra
* Uṣṇīṣavijayā
* Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra:
* Classes of Tantra in Tibetan Buddhism, the crown-protrusion mentioned in is this same upper-brain-blossoming/development, simply with a different label.

References

{{Buddhism topics

category:Buddhist art
Buddhas