5, in the 64 niches on the fifth and highest wall the _vitarka-mudrâ_
(the gesture of _discussion_) and higher, among the 72 cupolae of
the 3 circular terraces:
6, the _dharma-tyakra-mudrâ_ (mark of distinction), and finally the
_only_ sculpture from the wholly closed _dagob_, hewed in the
_bhumi-sparsya-mudrâ_.
So there is a slight difference between Foucher’s idea about the
north-indian _Mahâyânists_ and my defended explanation of the _Siam
Hînayânists_.
“_This is Buddha preaching the tyakra_” said king Tsyula Longkorn to me,
“_and this means the tyakra_”, joining the tops of the thumb and the
index of his right hand so as to form something like a circle.
This seemed convincing to me, and I found this idea confirmed not only
on all and still undamaged statues on the highest wall, but also, and
especially, on a great many _relievoes_ of the second gallery which
represent the _Buddha_ in a preaching posture.
It is true that the exactness of this view of mine had been indirectly
_denied_ by my great official antagonist, the late Dr. Brandes, but
never did he dispute or refute this scientifically.
Mr. Groeneveldt, formerly the most competent authority on our Hindu
sculptures in the Dutch Indies, thought the unfinished image of the
middle-dagob to be a representation of the _Adi-Buddha_, and this would
certainly have expounded this statue in it separately placing, if this
_im_material _primeval_ Buddha might have been ever represented in a
material image. And there are more objections than only this
_impersonality_ of the divine primeval being materially revealing
himself in the different _Buddhas_, and consequently _not_ hewed at
_Nepâl_ and _Tibet_ but only represented by a symbol, a circle or two
eyes[80].
Would the mahâyânistic architects of the Båråbudur have acted in quite a
different sense?
_I_ don’t see any _Dhyâni_-Buddha in this Buddha, but only the _perfect_
preacher _having taken flesh_ as the Buddha, the Master, who, though he
did die, continues to live as long as _this his_ world will exist.
Each posture of the hands has its own meaning, and there are much more
than five _mudrâs_ even in the hînayânistic countries like _Siam_ where
one doesn’t know any Dhyâni-Buddha.
This also refers to the posture of the _sixth_, for a long time
unexplained Buddha on the highest encircling wall whose mudrâ was
rightly called _dharma tyakra_[81]. Thumb and index, circularly joined
together, represent the _tyakra_, god Vishnu’s disc, the sun, the symbol
of the _dharma_, the buddhistic _Doctrine_.
Buddha has been consequently hewed there as _preacher, preaching the
doctrine_ to all people, and _consequently_ towards _all_ the regions of
heaven. And this teaching of the king-Buddhist has been perfectly
confirmed by the fact that on _all_ the sculptures (especially on those
we also see on the backwall of the second gallery) the thumb and the
index join each other in the very same manner.
That this preaching preacher has been placed upon the highest wall will
be easily understood if we consider the preaching of the doctrine to be
the highest vital expression of Buddhism, and possibly referred to both
the world of the four zones of heaven and to the one of the celestials
in the _zenith_.