[INDOLOGY] earliest attested mudras in South Asia?

[Dean Michael Anderson]

Mudrā:  A Study of Symbolic Gestures in Japanese  Buddhist 
Sculpture, by Dale Saunders, says this:
"It is  certain that the ritual gesture we now as the mudrā existed even 
before the  organization of Buddhism into a religious system.  Its use in the 
Veda is attested, while  its presence in the magical rites of primitive 
Buddhism is undeniable.  The appearance of mudrā in Tantrism  constitutes, we may 
say a sort of renaissance of the earlier gestures, probably  blurred during 
the first centuries A.D.  Nevertheless, it is probably that the mudrā was 
used in uncodified rites  as early as that period, though the question of its 
exact ritual value is at  present unsolved." (p. 31) 

Can anyone point me to the earliest evidence for the use of mudras in South Asia?
Thanks,
Dean
Dr. Dean AndersonEast West Cultural Institute




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