Maravijaya attitude

Māravijaya attitudeis anattitude of Buddha in Thai artof which the seated Buddha is putting his hand in the relax posture towards to the ground, loosely holding his knee. The other hand is on his lap. His eyes, sometimes closed, look down to the ground. The gesture of the hand reaching the ground is calledbhumisparshamudra,which also refers to the attitude as well. The gesture refers to the episode which the Buddha calling theearth to witness.

The attitude refers to the episode that he was reaching theenlightenmentand being disturbed bymaras.Learning that the maras asked him to give up, he touched the ground and called thePhra Mae Thoranito help him fight with the maras.^[1]Thoranee called tonnes of water and flooded away the maras. The episode results in the nameMara Vichaiwhich means the "Victory (vichai) over the Mara". TheMāravijayaseated Buddha is considered the common attitude for principal Buddha inubosotsof Khmer, Lao and Thaiwatsand Burmesekyaungs.^{[citation needed]}

TheDakkhinasakhastyle of theBuddha in Burmese artfeatures the Buddha in the Māravijaya attitude.

Names

The iconography is known by various names throughout Southeast Asia.

In Burmese art, the attitude is called thebhūmiphassa mudrā(Burmese:ဘူမိဖဿမုဒြာ).

InKhmer art,this attitude of Buddha is calledpreah pud (buddha) p'chanh mea(Khmer:ព្រះពុទ្ធផ្ចាញ់មារ), which means the sacred buddha defeating the enemy (māra).

In Thai art, this attitude is variously calledmara vichai(Thai:ปางมารวิชัย,RTGS:pang manrawichai),Chana Mara(ชนะมาร; victory over the Mara), andSadoung Mara(สะดุ้งมาร; striking fear into the Mara).

Notable examples

As mentioned, theMāravijayaBuddha is the most commonly-built Buddha, some of the notableBuddharupasinThailandthat are built depicting theMāravijayaare: