Abhaya Mudra (Gesture of Fearlessness)

Abhaya in Sanskrit means fearlessness, and the abhaya mudra symbolizes protection, peace, and the dispelling of fear. The gesture is made with the right hand raised to shoulder height, arm bent, and palm facing outward.

The gesture is an ancient one, demonstrating that the hand is empty of weapons and thus indicating friendship and peace. To western eyes, it looks like the gesture meaning "stop." In both cases, the gesture implies fearlessness before a potential enemy.

In Buddhism, the gesture is a symbol of the fearlessness - and thus the spiritual power - of the Buddha or bodhisattva who makes it.

According to Buddhist tradition, the historical Buddha made this gesture immediately after gaining enlightenment. And later, when the historical Buddha was about to be attacked by an angry elephant, he held up his hand in the fearlessness gesture and immediately calmed it.

The gesture of fearlessness is is only seen on Buddhas or boddhisatvas and appears most commonly in standing images. In Thailand and Laos, the abhaya mudra is seen on the walking Buddha (also called 'the Buddha placing his footprint'), a posture unique to that region.

When the right hand is in the abhaya mudra, the left hand usually hangs loosely at the side of the body or makes the varada mudra, or gift-giving gesture. In some SE Asian Buddha images, both hands are held in the abhaya mudra.

In Gandhara art, this mudra was sometimes used to indicate the action of preaching. This is also the case in China where it is very commonly found in images of the Buddha, mainly in the Wei and Sui eras (4th to 7th centuries).

The abhaya mudra is the gesture of the fifth Dhyani Buddha, Amoghasiddhi. By meditating on him, Amoghasiddhi helps in overcoming the delusion of jealousy and transforming it into the wisdom of accomplishment. Since jealousy can be seen as a type of fear, the gesture of fearlessness is appropriate for this Buddha.



Buddha Mudras

Mudras are a non-verbal mode of communication and self-expression, consisting of hand gestures and finger-postures.

They are symbolic sign based finger patterns taking the place, but retaining the efficacy of the spoken word, and are used to evoke in the mind ideas symbolizing divine powers or the deities themselves.

The composition of a mudra is based on certain movements of the fingers; in other words, they constitute a highly stylized form of gestureal communication. It is an external expression of 'inner resolve', suggesting that such non-verbal communications are more powerful than the spoken word.

Many such hand positions were used in the Buddhist sculpture and painting of India, Tibet, China, Korea and Japan.

They indicate to the faithful in a simple way the nature and the function of the deities represented. Mudras are thus gestures which symbolize divine manifestation. They are also used by monks in their spiritual exercises of ritual meditation and concentration, and are believed to generate forces that invoke the deity.



Bharatnatyam Mudra

But a mudra is used not only to illustrate and emphasize the meaning of an esoteric ritual. It also gives significance to a sculptural image, a dance movement, or a meditative pose, intensifying their potency. In its highest form, it is a magical art of symbolical gestures through which the invisible forces may operate on the earthly sphere.

It is believed that the sequence itself of such ritual hand postures may have eventually contributed to the development of the mudras of Indian Classical dance.

Another interesting meaning is given to the idea of the mudra. It reveals the secret imbibed in the five fingers. In such an interpretation, each of the fingers, starting with the thumb, is identified with one of the five elements, namely the sky, wind, fire, water, and the earth.

Their contact with each other symbolizes the synthesis of these elements, significant because every form in this universe is said to be composed of a unique combination of these elements. This contact between the various elements creates conditions favorable for the presence of the deity at rites performed for securing some desired object or benefit. That is, mudras induce the deity to be near the worshipper.

While there are a large number of esoteric mudras, over time Buddhist art has retained only five of them for the representations of the Buddha. Images of the Buddha which exhibit mudras other than these are extremely rare.

The significance of these mudras can be gauged from the fact that each of the five transcendental (Dhyani) Buddhas is assigned one of these mudras, and they are invariably depicted in visual arts with this particular mudra only.