The Symbolic Gestures

Mudras are the symbolic hand and body positions of Hindu and Buddhist practice, used in iconography, sacred dance and meditation. Each has a name and a meaning, the abhaya mudra of fearlessness and protection, the dhyana mudra of meditation, the bhumisparsha mudra of touching the earth by which the Buddha called the earth to witness, the dharmachakra mudra of turning the wheel of teaching.

The same gestures recur across sculpture, painting and ritual throughout South, Southeast and East Asia, so that a figure's mudra tells the viewer what moment or quality is being shown.