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A set of eight auspicious marks drawn together in Buddhist, Hindu and Jain traditions.
Also known as: Eight auspicious symbols, Eight auspicious signs
The Ashtamangala are eight auspicious symbols — most familiarly the parasol, the golden fish, the treasure vase, the lotus, the conch, the endless knot, the victory banner and the wheel — that appear as a group in Buddhist, Hindu and Jain art. They are drawn on temple walls, painted on doors, printed on textiles and cast into metalwork, usually in a fixed order and often arranged around a central figure. Which eight are counted, and in which order, differs between Tibetan, Chinese, Nepali, Hindu and Jain traditions, so a set that does not match a reader's expectation is more likely to belong to a different tradition than to be wrong.
Names a group of eight auspicious marks drawn together rather than any single symbol, and is the reason a reader meeting one of them on a temple wall usually finds the other seven nearby.
Contexts: Religion
Is not a fixed list across traditions. The Tibetan Buddhist set is the one most often reproduced in the West; Chinese Buddhist, Nepali, Hindu and Jain traditions count different marks or order them differently, and the Jain set in particular shares only part of its membership with the Buddhist one.
Contexts: Religion
Eight distinct small emblems drawn as a group, usually in a row or a ring — among them a parasol, two fish, a vase, a flower, a shell, a looped knot, a cylindrical banner and a spoked wheel.
The wheel is one of the eight.