This palm of a left hand is an illustration in an anonymous Sāmudrika-śāstra in Sanskrit verses, along with a Gujarati paraphrase. The Sāmudrika-śāstra is in a manuscript containing 17 different texts, mainly Jain hymns. The first part of the Sāmudrika-śāstra work, in 155 verses, relates to men while the second relates to women, taking 123 verses. The main Sanskrit text is known from other manuscripts in India as well as in England and seems to have been fairly widespread.

In 1733 of the Vikrama era (1676 CE) a Jain scribe copied this manuscript, which is clear from the initial homage to Mahāvīra, namely śrī-Vītarāgāya namaḥ. It was meant for a certain Hīracaṃda, who is likely to have been a Jain as well, given the name of his caste, which is Usa = Ukeśa = Oswal.

Auspicious signs and prediction

In Indian culture body parts and facial features display significant marks and signs that can be interpreted. These signs are called lakṣaṇas. For instance, there are 32 ‘auspicious signs’ characteristic of the bodies of both the 24th Jina Mahāvīra and the Buddha, which are known in parallel lists. The science of body-signs is known as sāmudrika-śāstra – ‘treatise on [body-parts] which have marks’. Among these body-parts, the hand – hasta – plays an important role. The Sanskrit term hasta sāmudrika śāstra describes palm-reading or palmistry in Sanskrit texts, and is also used in many modern Indian languages.

The main features of the sāmudrika-śāstras are that:

• body parts or structures are described by their likeness to animals – such as elephants, bulls, lions, monkeys, fish or tortoises – or objects, such as conches or umbrellas
• the existence of a given mark is interpreted in terms of future happiness or unhappiness, richness or poverty, health or disease and so on.

In the Indian context, the interpretation of body and face signs is mainly used to help select:

• leaders, such as kings and religious teachers
• marriage partners.

Numerous treatises describe people, particularly women, in this way. People are thus classified into different types according to their physical characteristics. Both stories and reality show that, along with other factors, such knowledge of women’s bodily and facial marks plays a large part in their selection as brides.

Indian culture has a rich heritage of knowledge in the field of foretelling the future. Divining future events can be based on signs from a variety of external objects, such as clouds, clothes, flags and animals. Such signs are discussed in one of the most famous and earliest treatises on this subject, the Br̥hat-Saṃhitā by the Hindu Varāhamihira, written in the sixth century CE in Sanskrit.

According to early scriptures, the average Jain mendicant is forbidden to use techniques to predict the future. Nevertheless, Jain monks have authored several treatises dealing with various types of prophecy and have contributed in large part to the transmission of this field of knowledge in western India.