"... the outstretched hand is an almost universal iconographic symbol. In the Mediterranean world, for example, the outstretched right hand of the
king has magical power; there must be a close connection with the power of salvation in the right hand of the
Roman emperors. This all-powerful hand, or
magna manus, as it was called, was connected with emperor and deity alike:
Constantine signifies the
act of ruling by stretching out
his right hand[2], and God, as savior makes the same gesture.
The origin of the raised right hand should probably be sought in the Middle East, whence it must have spread both eastward and westward. It is a common gesture in Gandharan
sculpture, and in
Roman art from the time of
Severus, the emperor is depicted with the raised right hand.[3] In Semitic religious rituals, for example, this gesture was used as a magic blessing having
apotropaic powers. "When it is made by a god, it protects all
his servants against malign influences and evil spirits: thus it becomes a tutelary sign, a symbol of
benediction. When the faithful worshipper himself makes it, he reinforces thereby
his prayer or
his incantation, and the action of the hand is added to that of the sacred words, in order to save him from all evil."[4] In
Persia, the cosmocrator
Ahura Mazda in the world ring stretches out
his right hand [5} in a similar gesture of power. Moreover there are numerous
biblical references to the magical powers and omnipotence of the
magna manus:[6] "Thou hast a mighty
arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand" (Psalm 89 : 14,5).
This concept of the right hand apparently penetrated into ancient
Greece, but it fell into disuse around the third century A.D. The use of the gesture in
Christian iconography is attested very early. By this sign
Christ [7] is designated as the all -powerful monarch, cosmocrator and pantocrator. It may be noted, too, that that the gesture evolved from a sign of power and rule to one of transmitting the law. According to the so called
traditio legis, this is the sign of
Christ who gives
his doctrine to the world [8]. And, like
Christ he lawgiver and pantocrator, the Buddha assumes the double role of lawgiver and protector. "The preference for the right hand is perhaps connected with the apparent course of the sun from east to
west, and the consequent idea that a sunwise course, keeping the object always on the right hand, is of
good omen and the opposite of evil." [8a]..."
- E. Dale Saunders
Mudra: A study of Symbolic Gestures in Japanese Buddhist Sculpture2 - L'Orange
Studies on the Iconography of Cosmic Kingship in the Ancient World , pp. 140-141
3 - L'Orange, p. 147, "It is from the orientalized world of gods of the third century A.D. the gesture has been transferred to the emperor."
4 - Cumont,
"Fouilles de Doura Europos", pp. 70 ff.
5 - L'Orange - fig. 63, p. 92.
6 - Ibid., Pp 159 ff.
7 - Ibid., fig. 116, fig. 117
8 - Ibid., fig. 119
8a - Hastings
Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, VI, 493
