Manifestation: Mudras within Iconography
(a paper I wrote in August 2011 for an Art History class)
(a paper I wrote in August 2011 for an Art History class)
When examining the iconography of some of the world’s major religions[1], it is easy to get caught up in the details of material used, the artist who created the piece and the historic events surrounding the piece, and overlook an important underlying theme of iconography: The position the represented being is portrayed in. Whether sitting, lying down or standing, images of Jesus Christ, the Christian saints, the Buddha and his bodhisattvas and the Hindu gods and goddesses can be shown to have some intriguing commonalities-namely, the arrangement of their hands.
Configurations of the hands for a spiritual reason, as in the case of religious icons, are called mudras in Hinduism and Buddhism, so they will be referred to as mudras in this paper. The word “mudra” is described at freedictionary.com as coming from the Sanskrit mudr
, seal, mystery, mudra, from Iranian *mudr, and perhaps ultimately: from Akkadian musarû, mu
arû, object bearing a royal inscription, from Sumerian mu-sar :mu, name, fame + sar, to write.
, seal, mystery, mudra, from Iranian *mudr, and perhaps ultimately: from Akkadian musarû, muarû, object bearing a royal inscription, from Sumerian mu-sar :mu, name, fame + sar, to write.Although mudras are found in Buddhism and Christianity, they are commonly associated with Hinduism and the practice of yoga. A classic example is the familiar image of Shiva Nataraja, showing the Hindu god Shiva engaged in his cosmic dance, all four arms gesturing. Although the outer two arms are holding things, a ball of fire and a drum respectively, the inner two arms are held in a stylized fashion which has symbolic meaning. The left arm, stretching across his body with the hand draping down to indicate his raised left foot, “signifies the promise of liberation (Stokstad)”, and the right arm, folded in toward his chest, has the palm of the hand turned outward in a gesture that is said to show the strength of the deity and to be of reassurance, blessing, and protection: The “Abhaya” mudra, also known as the “have no fear (Stokstad)” mudra, and as the “gesture for promising protection (Hirschi)”.
The Abhaya mudra is also found in Christian iconography, as in this image of the Archangel Michael, known as The Protector of the Chosen. Marilyn Stokstad, in the first volume of her Art History textbook, notes that Michael is “…blessing petitioners with upraised hand…”.
Another example of a mudra in Christian iconography can be found in the Christ Pantokrator, or Christ in Majesty images. In these, Christ will be holding a book in his left hand, which if open causes the image to be referred to as Christ the Teacher ("Christ Pantocrator,"). With his right hand he makes a sign by extending the index and middle finger, while letting the ring and little fingers curl inward toward the thumb.
The oldest known icon of Christ Pantocrator,(Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai).
Romanesque Christ in Majesty, the Western equivalent, from Sant Climent de Taüll, Catalonia
This gesture is very similar to the Pran Mudra, which touches the ring and little finger to the thumb while extending the index and middle fingers. Pran mudra is named “the mudra of life and stability, strengthening the eyes and bringing inner peace, stamina, and confidence (k., 2011)”. According to yogic tradition, prana is the mysterious energetic life force that animates living beings. Pran Mudra is said to generate and redirect this life force (Ulibarri, 2010).
Christ Pantocrator mosaic in Byzantine style from Cefalù Cathedral, Sicily.
No discussion of mudras within Christian iconography would be complete without bringing up Anjali, or Atmanjali, mudra, known in the West as “prayer hands”, and easily the hand position most associated with spirituality by Westerners. Anjali mudra, with the two palms placed together in front of the heart, fingertips pointing skyward, is explained as supporting “inner collection” and peace, creating harmony and balance within silent contemplation: A peaceful attitude of repose. This gesture supposedly “activates and harmonizes coordination of the left and right brain hemispheres…(and) can support a supplicatory meditation when you have a request of the Divine, when you have a heart’s desire that you would like to have fulfilled (Hirschi)”. This gesture is also used to simply express gratitude and/or reverence, while in India it is used during greeting or thanks, and to show respect for fellow human beings.
Statue of Praying Princess, Rishikesh, India.
This prayer position of the hands can also be found in recent Buddhist iconography, which may be an indication of transference, as artisans strive to appeal to international travelers. More common, however, in the older Buddhist images are mudras such as Dhyani Mudra, the “gesture of meditation-of contemplation (Hirschi)”. Many statues of the Buddha utilize this classic meditation pose, a simple folding of the hands in the lap so that they form a sort of bowl. The “bowl” of the hands supposedly shows that we are prepared inwardly to receive everything that we need from the Divine.
Borobudur, Indonesia.
Another mudra commonly seen in portrayals of the Buddha, which was discussed earlier in the context of the Archangel Michael and the god Shiva, is Abhaya, the “fear not” mudra, said in Japan to be the gesture Shaka Nyorai (Historical Buddha) made immediately after attaining enlightenment (Schumacher, 1995). This mudra, raising the right hand above the level of the waist with the palm facing out, is often combined with the “Welcome” mudra, turning the left palm out and extending the arm in front and toward the ground, which is known as Varada(a mudra of forgiveness/mercy/granting wishes) in Hinduism, and as Yogan-in, a mudra for converting “pride, greed and envy into the wisdom of equanimity; the wisdom of essential similarity” in Japanese Buddhism (Schumacher).
Abhaya mudra and Varada mudra
A modern mind begins to wonder at all the meanings attendant upon these hand mudras, the claims that certain mudras can help with everything from arthritis to hearing and eyesight problems, to psychological issues such as envy, and even affect the activity of the hemispheres of the brain. Fascinatingly, there is evidence in the Western scientific community that may validate such claims. For example: Italian neuroscientists have found that there may be “a reciprocal influence between words and symbolic gestures (Gentilucci,2008)” which can be measured in the brain using neuroimaging.
In an abstract from their article published in the Journal of Physiology, Paris, these scientists state that in their studies of primate premotor cortexes, they found “a system of double commands to hand and mouth” which they posit “may have evolved initially in the context of ingestion, and later formed a platform for combined manual and vocal communication (Gentilucci)”.
While this provides an interesting look at the physiological origins of the hand/brain connection, there is even more pertinent scientific evidence that mudras have a very real effect on the user’s consciousness. Scientists at the Centre for Biomedical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi have been teaming up with doctors to study the effects of mudra on cerebral electrical activity using EEG scans. They state that “an increase in coherence between the left and right hemisphere was observed accompanied by a high increase in slow-wave progression [(Delta+Theta)/Alpha] in most of the brain regions (Santhosh, J., et al.)”.
These measurable changes in brain activity in people practicing mudras, combined with a large body of evidence documenting meditation’s effect on the brain, serves to underline the importance of mudras, not just in understanding religious iconography, but also in coping with the stresses and concerns of modern life. For the things that concern us now, in our day to day existence, are in fact many of the same things that concerned people when mudras were a part of the common lexicon and needed no explaining.
[1] For the purpose of this paper, Islam will not be examined, due to the lack of human-form iconography.
Bibliography
Christ Pantocrator. Wikipedia. Retrieved August 14, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Pantocrator
Gentilucci M, Dalla Volta R, Gianelli C., . (2008). When the hand speak. Journal of Physiology, Paris,102(1-3)(21-30), Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18440209
Hirschi, Gertrud. Mudras: Yoga In Your Hands. York Beach, ME: Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC, 2000. Print.
Santhosh, J., et al. , . (n.d.). Spatio-temporal eeg spectral analysis of shambhavi maha mudra practice in ishta yoga . Retrieved from http://www.ishafoundation.org/news/happenings/Shambavi.pdf
Schumacher, M. (1995, 2011). Mudra: hand gestures with religious meaning. Retrieved from http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/mudra-japan.shtml
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. third. one. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
Ulibarri, S. (2010, July 22). The health benefits of pran mudra. Retrieved from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5585614/the_health_benefits_of_pran_mudra_pg2.html?cat=5
Yogaphile, . (2009, February 17). Yogic mudras in christian imagery. Christian Yoga Magazine, Retrieved from http://christianyogamagazine.com/christian-yoga/yogic-mudras-in-christian-imagery/
