Vishnu.

The idea that great teachers of mankind appear in a regular series and
at stated intervals is certainly older than Gotama, but it is hard to
say how far it was systematized before his time. The greatness of the
position which he won and the importance of the institutions which he
founded naturally caused his disciples to formulate the vague traditions
about his predecessors. They were called indifferently Buddha, Jina,
Arhat, etc., and it was only after the constitution of the Buddhist
church that these titles received fixed meanings.

Closely connected with the idea of the Buddha or Jina is that of the
Mahapurusha or great man. It was supposed that there are born from time
to time supermen distinguished by physical marks who become either
universal monarchs (cakra-vartin) or teachers of the truth. Such a
prediction is said to have been made respecting the infant Gotama and
all previous Buddhas. The marks are duly catalogued, as thirty-two
greater and eighty[743] smaller signs. Many of them are very curious.
The hair is glossy black: the tongue is so long that it can lick the
ears: the arms reach to the knees in an ordinary upright position: the
skin has a golden tinge: there is a protuberance on the skull and a
smaller one, like a ball, between the eyebrows. The long arms may be
compared with the Persian title rendered in Latin by Longimanus[744] and
it is conceivable that the protuberances on the head may have been
personal peculiarities of Gotama. For though the thirty-two marks are
mentioned in the Pitakas as well-known signs establishing his claims to
eminence, no description of them has been found in any pre-Buddhist
work[745], and they may have been modified to suit his personal
appearance. At any rate it is clear that the early generations of
Buddhists considered that the Master conformed to the type of the
Mahapurusha and attached importance to the fact[746]. The Pitakas
repeatedly allude to the knowledge of these marks as forming a part of
Brahmanic training and in the account of the previous Buddha Vipassi
they are duly enumerated. These ideas about a Great Man and his
characteristics were probably current among the people at the time of
the Buddha's birth. They do not harmonize completely with later
definitions of a Buddha's nature, but they show how Gotama's
contemporaries may have regarded his career.

In the older books of the Pitakas six Buddhas are mentioned as preceding
Gotama[747], namely