page_title: Buddhist mythology
section_title: Manhood and physical prowess
hierarchical_section_title: Buddhist mythology / Themes / Manhood and physical prowess
caption_attribution_description: (Left) Princess Yasodhara points to Prince Siddhattha, Bodhisatta performing feats of archery. (Right) The demonstration of the archery skills of Prince Siddhattha, showing three, (top right) of the twelve feats as in the Sarabhanga Jataka, one of the stories of the former lives of Buddha. Asian Collection Keywords: Buddhist; God; ms burmese 22; Buddhism; Religion; Art; Buddha
context_page_description: The Buddhist traditions have created and maintained a vast body of mythological literature. The central myth of Buddhism is the life of the Buddha. This is told in relatively realistic terms in the earliest texts, and was soon elaborated into a complex literary mythology. The chief motif of this story, and the most distinctive feature of Buddhist myth, is the Buddha's renunciation: leaving his home and family for a spiritual quest. Alongside this central myth, the traditions contain large numbers of smaller stories, which are usually supposed to convey an ethical or Buddhist teaching. These include the popular Jātakas, folk tales or legends believed to be past lives of Gautama Buddha. Since these are regarded as episodes in the life of the Buddha, they are treated here as “myth”, rather than distinguishing between myth, legend, and folk-tale.
  Buddhist mythology is maintained in texts, but these have always existed alongside oral traditions of storytelling, as well as creative retellings of myths as drama or artworks. This creative mythology continues to this day, and includes film, television, and musical adaptions of Buddhist myths.
context_section_description: John Powers has noted how the story of the Buddha in Indian texts presents themes of male physical perfection, beauty and virtue. The Buddha is often depicted in Indian art and literature as a virile "Ultimate Man" (purusottama) and "is referred to by a range of epithets that extol his manly qualities, his extraordinarily beautiful body, his superhuman virility and physical strength, his skill in martial arts, and the effect he has on women who see him." He is given numerous epithets such as “god among men,” “possessing manly strength,” “victor in battle,” “unsurpassed tamer of men,” “bull of a man” and “fearless lion.” He is seen as having lived hundreds of past lives as cakravartins and as manly gods such as Indra and in his final life as Gautama, he excelled as a lover to many women in his palace harem as well as a warrior in the martial arts of a ksatriya. Texts such as the Lalitavistara (extensive sport) dwell on the martial contests that the young bodhisattva had to complete in order to gain his wife, concluding in an archery contest in which he "picks up a bow that no one else could draw and that few could even lift. He grasps it while sitting down, lifts it easily, and shoots an arrow through every target, which utterly eclipses the performances of all the others." The depictions of his ascetic training as well as his victory over the temptations of Mara and his final awakening are also often described as a result of his manly effort in a heroic battle. The ascetic life is also connected to virility. In ancient India, the celibacy and the retaining of semen was said to bring about strength, health and physical energy. The practice of celibacy and austerity was said to accumulate a spiritual energy called tapas. Thus even as a celibate ascetic, the Buddha can fulfill the mythical archetype of the supreme man and heroic warrior.
  All these good qualities are associated with the idea that the Buddha has excellent karma and virtue and thus in Indian Buddhism, moral transformation was seen as being related to physical transformation. While usually overlooked in most scholarly literature, an important element of the Buddha mythology is the excellent physical characteristics of his body, which is adorned with what is termed the thirty two “physical characteristics of a great man” (mahapurusa-laksana), which are found only in Buddhas and in universal monarchs and are seen as proving their status as superior men. In parallel with the perfect physical qualities of the Buddha, some Buddhist female figures such as the Buddha's mother Maya are said to also have thirty two good qualities, thus male perfection and female perfection mirror each other.
  The Buddha's perfection is also associated with supranormal feats (abhiñña) such as levitation, walking on water and telepathy. His powers are superior to that of the gods, and Indian deities like Brahma are depicted as being his disciples and accepting his superiority.
caption: The Sarabhanga Jātaka depicts the bodhisattva in a past life giving an exhibition of his extraordinary skill in archery.
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