It can be assumed that the earliest illustrations in human history were footprints in clay and the prints of hands smeared with coloring matter on rock walls. The ability to produce an illustration without the movements of drawing may well have fascinated early human. The technique of making handprints on textiles is still in use among some African tribes.
The footprint of Buddha has great importance in Buddhist mythology, leading to the production of some astonishingly beautiful symbol signs. In the imagined scale of the divine, superhuman form it is the soles of the feet that come closest to the earth. Foot symbols have been derived from this idea because they are the only traces remaining of the godhead's former sojourn on earth. The same myth has remained alive in Hinduism, accounting for the frequent occurrence of the outline of the foot in north Indian painting. As an example we show a picture of a footprint of the Indian god Vishnu with a mass of symbols on its sole.
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