Also called: 32 signs of a great man · mahāpuruṣa lakṣaṇa · Lakkhaṇa Sutta marks

Where on the hand: Distributed over the whole body; ten of the thirty-two concern the hands and feet — palms, soles, fingers, heels, ankles and arm-length.

What it looks like: As they concern the hand: level soles, a thousand-spoked wheel figure on each sole, projecting heels, high ankles, a net of fine lines across palms and soles, long extended fingers, soft-textured skin, arms reaching the knees, a hand-span equal to the body's height, and seven convex fleshy surfaces.

Set out in the Lakkhaṇa Sutta (Dīgha Nikāya 30). The doctrine is that these 32 appear only on two kinds of being — a Wheel-Turning Monarch (cakravartin) and a Perfectly Enlightened Buddha — and that whichever life the being chooses, the marks are the ripening of past wholesome action and predict non-physical qualities. Palmistry's shubh chinha are, in effect, fragments of this inventory found on ordinary hands.

Read with care: The Buddhist sources themselves note that the Buddha reportedly looked ordinary and rejected the idea that greatness derives from physical marks; Dhamma Wiki reads the 32 as an idealised aesthetic, not a diagnostic system. Language mismatch: the Devanagari द्वात्रिंशत् महापुरुष लक्षण is Sanskrit while the transliteration 'battiṃsa mahāpurisa-lakkhaṇa' is Pali. Both are legitimate; they should not be presented as one form.

wheels of a thousand spokes, complete with felloe and hubLakkhaṇa Sutta (DN 30)