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The Buddha's cūḍā, Hair, uṣṇīṣa, and Crown

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
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A modern student of Buddhism, unfamiliar with Buddhist art, and accustomed to think of the Buddha only as a human and historical figure, would naturally expect to find the Śākya sage represented in art like any other Buddhist friar, with a shaven (muṇḍa) head; and to suppose that such representations could only have existed as memorials, and not as objects of a cult. As a matter of fact, however, the Buddha is always represented, although not in royal garb, as a deity, with a nimbus, lotus or lion throne, and certain physical peculiarities proper to the conception of a MahāPuruṣa and Cakravartin or King of the World. But crowned and otherwise ornamented Buddhas are not unknown, and again, the earliest Indian type differs in several respects from the established formula of the Gupta and later periods. Thus the Buddha iconography presents a number of difficult problems; and amongst these are those referred to in the title of this paper.

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Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 60 , Issue 4 , October 1928 , pp. 815 - 841
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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1928

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References

page 815 note 1 I have not thought it necessary to discuss here the apocryphal accounts of earlier images of the Buddha.

page 816 note 1 See my “Origin of the Buddha Image”, Art Bulletin, 1927.

page 816 note 2 Thus, Friar Bala's figure at Sārnāth, and the Katrā, Mound figure, Mathurā (H.I.I.A., figs. 83, 84) are described in the inscriptions as Bodhisattvas, though entirely without ornaments, while the similar figure from Anyor, Mathura, is called a Buddha; see Vogel, , Oat. Arch. Mus., Mathura, p. 40 and pi. viiiGoogle Scholar. All three undoubtedly represent Gautama.

A similar problem is rarely met with in the literature. But in Sutta-Nipāta, v. 48 (Dialogues, ii, 2), in the story of the meeting of Gautama and Bimbisāra, the former is called Buddha, although the event took place seven years before the Enlightenment, i.e. “before he had become a Buddha in the later technical sense”.

In general, and always in Gandhara, Gautama is represented as a Buddha from the Great Renunciation onwards, and not merely after the attainment of Buddhahood.

A marked divergence between the texts and the art is to be observed in the fact that the former almost always speak of the Bodhi tree as a nyagrodha, the latter represent it as a pippala.

page 817 note 1 For (1) see H.I.I.A., figs. 79, 83–6, and 96; Smith, Jaina Stupa of Mathura, pl. ci, 2; Vogel, Cat. Arch. Mus., Mathura, pls. iiic and vii; Scherman, , in Pantheon, 1928Google Scholar, Heft 3. The spiral conical projection is often broken away.

page 817 note 2 For the Gandhāra type, see Foucher, L'Art gréco-bouddhique du Qandhara, passim; H.I.I.A., figs. 89, 90, 94; and countless other published examples.

page 818 note 1 For (3) H.I.I.A., figs. 98, 100, 101, and 158–61 are typical. Thousands of examples could be cited.

page 818 note 2 For the crowned type see references in Majumdar, Adi-Buddha in the Eastern School of Art, in Varendra Research Soc., Ann. Rep., 1926–7, together with Burgess, Ancient Monuments, pl. 236, Sahni in A.S.I., A.R., 1915–16, p. 60, and M.F.A., Bulletin No. 132, etc.

page 818 note 3 The modern turban (pagrī) is still in eastern seminaries the symbol of graduation: “the disciple is in statu pupillari until the dignity of a Pagri is conferred on him by the hands of his master.” Further, “The Pagri is tied as a symbol of succession when the head of a religious brotherhood dies and another is elected or nominated in his place” (Ali, Yusuf, Monograph on fhe silk fabrics of the N.W.P. and Oudh, 1900, p. 77)Google Scholar. See also Agni Purana, ch. xc.

page 819 note 1 To judge from some of the sculptures (PI. V, Fig. 7, and Smith, Jaina Stupa of Mathura, pl. ci, 1), the ornamented disc, as it appears in front view, could be regarded as the front part of a sort of helmet covering the top of the head, and placed in position before the folds of the material were wound on; but this appearance is merely the result of a technical exigency, as a thin metal plaque could not be represented in stone without solid material behind to support it. In a few cases only the crest of the Kusana turban is placed at the side of the forehead, and there are no folds crossing above the forehead, but the turban material covers the top of the head (Smith, loc. cit., pi. lxxxvi, 1); but this is exceptional.

page 821 note 1 The word mukuta, indeed, is used in the Buddha-Carita account, but Makuṭa-bandhana, the name of the shrine at which the cremation of the Buddha's body took place (Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta), suggests that makuta may in some cases imply a turban rather than a crown. Mukuta is also used of a woman's headdress: Lalita Vistara, episode of the sleeping women, ch. xv, Lefmann, p. 206.

Nothing like a crown appears in the art before the Gupta period, except in connexion with Indra, whose crown (kirita) is evidently of metal (see my article on Indra in Eastern Art, vol. i, No. 1).

page 821 note 2 In another connexion, where a jewelled turban is cited as typical of a rich layman's costume, we find maṇi-kanaka-vicitta-molibaddho “gem and gold decorated head-binding”; and maṇi-muttd-kancana-vicittamolibaddho, “gem and pearl and gold decorated head-binding” (Milindapañha, iv, 16, 6, and vi, 2 = Trenckner, pp. 243, 348). These terms suggest the typical Kusana turban with its jewelled crest. In Jātaka 546 (Cowell, p. 369) the maṇi is stolen from the royal cūḷá; here cūḷā. cannot mean hair alone, but the turban or crest of the turban, while maṇi may be a single gem. For molibaddho = mauḍabaddha, see Appendix.

page 821 note 1 Most of the translations lay too much stress on the hair.

page 821 note 2 Senart, Mahāvastu, ii, pp. 165, 166.

page 821 note 3 Lefmann, , Lalita-Vistara, i, 225, 21 (ch. xv)Google Scholar.

page 821 note 4 V'Art gréco-bouddhique du Oandhara, p. 363. Lalita-Vistara, p. 197.

page 822 note 1 Cowell, , Buddha-carita, vi, 57Google Scholar.

page 822 note 2 I am indebted to my colleague, Miss Chie Hirano, for looking up this source with me. Beal's version in S.B.E., 45, “hair with its jewelled stud,” is altogether unsatisfactory.

page 823 note 1 Fausboll, , Jātaka, i, pp. 60, 64Google Scholar.

page 823 note 2 Saddhirṁ, of course, governs the word preceding it. The Buddha-carita has sa-keśaṁ. As regards moli: per se, it is “head” or “hair”, and might perhaps be rendered best by “head of hair”. I have retained the “topknot” of formerauthors, although we do not really know for certain that the Bodhisattva's long hair Was tied in a topknot.

In the Pariśṣṭaparvan, Story of Agaḍadatta, 101 (Meyer, p. 251) a Brahmanical ascetic is described as muzidiyasirakucasaccula, rendered by Meyer “who wore a sheaf of hair on his bald head by way of a crowntuft”; and in a footnote more literally “crowntufted by means of a bunch of hair on his shaven head”, adding that cūḍā means a single lock of hair left on the crown of a shaven head. The fact is cūḍā means crest or both together crownpiece or anything of that sort, and so may mean “lock” or “turban” according to circumstances; we have seen that the same holds good for moli, mauḍa. But when we find, as above, moliya saddhim cūḷaṁ as the equivalent of mukuṭaṁ sakeśaṁ, it is obvious that cūḷaih corresponds to mukuṭaṁ and means the headdress on the hair, not the hair alone.

It is therefore natural to equate moli with keśa, and this may be legitimate. Butit should be borne in mind that the usual meaning of maulī, mauḍa, etc. is simply “headdress” (turban or crown as the case may be), and so perhaps we ought really to render “grasping crest and turban together”. In Buddha-carita, viii, 52, the hair (mūrdhajā) is said to have been worthy to be covered by (pariveṣtanakṣamāḥ) a royal maulī, which is therefore certainly not the hair, but the turban.

page 824 note 1 This is one of the many cases in which the word cetiya does notmean a stūpa. The first Buddhist stūpa was erected for the kesadhātu, the Hair relic properly so-called; this was subsequent to the attainment of Buddhahood, and for this first Buddhist dagaba the Buddha himself prepared the model (Beal, , Buddhist Records, i, p. 47)Google Scholar.

Both at Bharhut and at Sāñcī the Cūḍāmaḣa is shown upon an altar within a temple, and in full view.

page 824 note 2 Very possibly moṇi, in the combination ciilamaṇi, should not always be taken as equivalent to maṇi-vicitta-, but simply as “precious treasure”; cf. strīratna, etc., amongst the Seven Treasures of Kings, and mauḍa rayana in the Paśiṣṭaparvan, rendered “pearl of a diadem” not “pearl-diadem” in Meyer, , Hindu Tales, p. 139Google Scholar (= Jacobi, p. 39).

In a Sṁhalese lithic inscription of the twelfth century we find śikāmaṇi instead of cūḷāmaṇi (Epigraphia Zeylanica, ii, p. 252; here, p. 254, for “crest gems” read “Crest Gem” or “Precious Headdress”).

page 824 note 2 Fausboll, , Jataka, i, 81Google Scholar. These hairs were enshrined in a stūpa (Beal, , Buddhist Records, i, p. 47)Google Scholar.

page 825 note 1 Cunningham, Stupa of Bharhut, pl. 16, or H.I.I.A., fig. 43; Marshall, Guide to Sanchi, pi. vi, a.

page 825 note 2 And Vogel, Mathura School of Sculpture, A.S.I., A.S., 1906–7, pi. lvi; Cat. Arch. Mus. Mathura, No. J 1. Another example may be seen, ib., pl. vi (= H 11), in the niche above the Indra-sāla-gnhā.

page 825 note 3 Also Foucher, L'Art gréco-bouddhique du Gandhara, fig. 186; Griggs, Historical Buildings in India, pl. 90.

page 825 note 4 Gautamī, , in Buddha-carita, viii, 52Google Scholar, even thinks of the Bodhisattva's long hair as having been oast away on the ground (praceritāste bhuvi).

page 825 note 5 Similarly, Āpastambha, 1, 1, 2, 31–32, with reference to students.

Cf. Chandaka's description of ascetics in general terms, Lalita- Vistara, ch. xv, Lefmann, p. 210: they are jaṭāmakuṭa and dīrghanakhakeśaḥ “their matted hair is their crown, and their nails and hair are long”.

Brahmā, always represented as an ascetic, is represented with long coiled hair, whence his epithet Śikhin. So too, Śiva, as a yogī, is not muṇḍa, but wears a jaṭāmukuṭta, a crown of matted looks. Thus long hair cannot be called a distinctive mark of the layman as contrasted with the religious.

In the Aggika Jātaka (No. 129) a tonsure leaving a scalp lock is indicated foi ascetics. Cowell, i, p. 283, has a footnote erroneously stating that Buddhist monks practise this tonsure.

page 826 note 1 Stein, , Ancient Khotan, pp. 209, 220, and pi. xlviiGoogle Scholar; cf. Serindia, p. 858, n.

page 826 note 2 Burgess, Ancient Monuments, pl. 67.

page 826 note 3 Krom, , The Life of Buddha, pp. 75, 76Google Scholar (with discussion and nearly exhaustive references).

page 827 note 1 Cohn, Buddha in die Kunst des Ostens, pl. 73. Seidenstüoker, , Die Buddha-legende in den Skulpturen des Ananda-Tempels zu Pagan, Hamburg, 1916, p. 47Google Scholar.

page 825 note 2 It could be argued that perhaps the head had been partly shaved in secular life, leaving only a scalp-lock. But there is no evidence of any such custom to be found in the early art; and in the Buddha-carita, viii, 52, we find Gautami speaks regretfully of the Bodhisattva's hair as having been before the tonsure, “beautiful, soft, black, and all in great waves.”

page 828 note 1 For a very fine example of the Kaṭrā mound type, now in Munich, see Scherman, L., in Pantheon, 1928, Heft 3, illustration on p. 149.

For Jaina examples representing Mahāvīra, see Smith, Jaina Stupa of Mathura, pls. xvii, 1, and ci, 2.

In Aupapātika-Sūtra, § 16, describing the appearance of Mahāvīra, we find piṇḍiy' -agga-sirae “with a projection on the top of his head”. This is again ambiguous, for it equally describes the early type with the spiral lock, and the later “uṣṇiṣa”. Cf. Leumann, , in Abh. Kunde des Morgenlandes, viii, 2, 1883, p. 139Google Scholar (glossary, s.v. piṇḍiya). The tonsure of Mahāvīra is supposed to have been performed by the tearing out of the hair, as related in the Kalpa-Sūtra, and represented in the corresponding illustrations (Cat. Indian Coll., Boston, iv, pl. 2).

page 829 note 1 Tawney, translation, p. 20.

page 829 note 2 S.B.B. iii (Dialogues of the Buddha, 2, 1910)Google Scholar. Mostauthors agree on a date between the third and first centuries b.c.

page 829 note 3 The Mahā-Puruṣa from a Brāhmanical point of view is Nārāyaṇa (Visṇṣu). Waddell has interpreted the uṣṇīṣa in this connexion (The Buddha's Diadem . . . or uṣṇīṣa . . ., O.Z., iii, 1915); cf. Keith, , Buddhist Philosophy, p. 29Google Scholar. Buddha, in the Mahābhārata, is already an avatār of Viṣṇu.

page 830 note 1 Foucaux renders, “la tête couronnée par un protuberance du crâne”; but he is evidently relying on later commentators; actually there is no word f or “couronnée” and no contemporary authority for protuberance du crâne.

page 830 note 2 On Yuan Chwang.

page 831 note 1 Stede and Rhys Davids, Pali Dictionary, give “turban” as the only meaning of uṇhīsa, with the following references: DN. i, 7, ii, 19 = iii, 145 (cf. Dial., ii, 16); Jā. ii, 88; Miln. 330; DA. i, 89; DhsA. i, 98. In Majjhima Nikāya, 89 (ii, 119) King Pasenadi lays down Ms sword and uṇhīsa before approaching the Buddha, and here, too, uṇhīsacan only mean “turban”.

page 831 note 2 The texts consistently inform us that the lakkhaṇas were recognized in theinfant Bodhisattva by Brahman soothsayers (naimittaka). Divination of this sort is expressly forbidden to good Buddhists; whereas “. . . the business of Brahmans is concerned . . . with the knowledge of lucky, marks (lakkhauṇaṃ) “(Milindapañha, iv, 3, 26). Somewhat mysteriously andexceptionally, Saṁ. Nik. 1022 attributes the Mahāpuruṣa lakkhaṇas to Bāveri, “the Babylonian.”

page 831 note 3 The Cakravartin concept, as remarked by Przyluski, , Açokāvādana, pp. 102, 113Google Scholar, seems to have come into prominence at the same time that the Aśoka legend was elaborated, thus probably in the second or first century b.c.

page 832 note 1 E.g. Lakkhana-Suttanta(S.B.B., iv = Dialogues of the Buddha, 3, with a valuable discussion by Rhys Davids); Milindapañha, iii, 6, 3; Aśvaghoṣa, Sutrālaṁkāra (Huber, p. 397—here the Buddha, adorned with the lakṣaṇas “looked like a painting”); Lalita-Vistara; etc.

page 832 note 2 See e.g. M.F.A. Bulletin, No. 104, and Hackin, J., Sculptures grécobouddhiques du Kapiśa, Fondation Piot, xxviii, p. 39, and pi. ivGoogle Scholar.

page 833 note 1 Buddha in der Kunst dee Ostens, p. xxv.

page 834 note 1 Watters, , On Yuan Chwang, i, pp. 195–8Google Scholar, with full references.

page 834 note 2 Bachhofert, L., Sine Pfeiler-Figur aus Bodhgayā, Jahrb. As. Kunst, ii, 1925Google Scholar. Kramrisch, S., Grundzüge der indischen Kunst, pp. 113, 114, and pi. 31Google Scholar. H.I.I.A., fig. 40. Attention was first called to this relief by SirMarshall, John, JRAS., 1908, p. 1096Google Scholar. Buddha-like heads with curly hair and cranial protuberance occurring in lotus medallions at Bodhgaya have been cited as early Buddha prototypes, but they occur exclusively on the later pillars not antedating the Gupta period.

page 835 note 1 Laufer, , Dokumente der indischen Kunst, I. Malerei. Das Citralahṣatṇa, Leipzig, 1913Google Scholar.

page 835 note 2 Exception must be made of the figure of Bali pouring out the daicṣiṇoda in the Trivikrama compositions of Caves II, III, IV at Bādāmi (Banerji, R. D., in Mem. A.S.I., No. 25, pp. 19, 31Google Scholar, and pls. ixa and xvi).

page 836 note 1 Chanda, R. P., in A.S.I., A.R., 1921–1922, p. 105Google Scholar. The oldest example seems to be the turbaned Buddha of PI. V, Fig. 5 (if not a Bodhisattva).

page 836 note 2 H.I.I.A., figs. 78, 95.

page 837 note 1 Adi-Buddha in the Eastern School of Art, Ann. Eep. Varendra Researoh Soc, Rajshahi, 1926–7. References to the literature are given; Burgess, Ancient Monuments, pl. 236, and Sahni (crowned Buddha from Parihasapura) in A.S.I., A.M., 1915–16, may be added.

page 837 note 2 E.g. M.F.A. Bulletin, No. 132, p. 30.

page 837 note 3 Similar coronations are sometimes represented in connexion with the marriage of Śiva and Pārvatī.

page 838 note 1 See my “Early Indian Iconography, Pt. I, Indra”, in Eastern Art, vol. i, No. 1, 1928Google Scholar.

page 838 note 1 Elsewhere (Hemacandra, Pariśiṣṭaparvan, Story of Domuha, Jacobi p. 39, and Meyer, pp. 139, 140) mauḍa alone is used for headdress (in this case presumably a crown, as it is found in good condition while digging the foundations for a cittasabbā). So also in the story of Saṇaṁkumāra (Jacobi, p. 26, Meyer, p. 85) mauḍa is the turban or crown used in the coronation ceremony. It is evident that just as in the Pali texts cūḍāmaṇiveṭthana may be contracted to cūḍāmaṇi or cūḍa, so in the Jaina texts mauḍbaddha is the same as mauḍa-rayana or simply mauḍa; and “turban” or “crown” is to be understood according to the circumstances and contemporary fashion. For similar contractions see Franke, Kurzwngen der Composite in Indischen, Wiener Zeit. Kunde des Morgenlandes, viii, 1894.

In the Story of Naggai (Meyer, p. 181) where the chief queen paṭṭarājñī, this should be rendered “invested with the frontlet”, rather than “with the turban” as Meyer has it.

page 840 note 1 The subject of paṭas is treated at some length in Mihira's, VarāhaBrhat Samhita (ed. Kern, , Bib. Ind., Calcutta, 1865, p. 241)Google Scholar. The dimensions, etc., are given of paṭas proper for kings, Yuvarājas and Senapātis; the paṭa is to be made of pure gold.