Demarcating Sacred Space The Jina Images at Kalugumalai

SR No.: 007302
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Lisa N Owen
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 2010
Total Pages: 28
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 2 MB

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being portrayed as an attendant to the Jina Pārsvanātha, the relief of the goddess Padmāvatī in Group 5 presents her as an important deity in her own right (Figure 9). She is identifiable through the five cobra hoods that form a canopy over her conical crown. Padmāvati is seated in lalitāsana on a large single lotus and she appears to hold a round fruit and a rosary (or noose) in her lower left and right hands, respectively. Her upper hands hold a goad and a snake. The goddess is richly ornamented with bracelets, earrings, and a necklace and she is flanked by two female attendants holding flywhisks and citrons. Padmāvatī is presented in larger scale than her attendants, indicating her superior status.
Further down the left side of the rock's surface is a relief depicting the goddess Ambikā (also known as Kūsmāndinī). Narratives about this goddess were written in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries to explain her iconography and her role as an attendant (śāsanadevī) to the twenty-second Jina, Neminātha. While Śvetāmbaras and Digambaras have their own versions of this story, the turn of events leading to her transformation from mortal to goddess are quite similar in both traditions. Ambikā was banished from her household with her two children because she offered food to a Jain monk that was originally intended for a śrāddha ceremony. During her banishment, she and her children became hungry and miraculously a mango tree (also identified as a "wish-fulfilling" tree) and a body of water appeared before them. Thus, she could provide nourishment for herself and her children. Meanwhile, back at her household, some miracles occurred that convinced Ambikā's husband that her actions were indeed honourable. Ambikā's husband then decided to retrieve his wife and children. However, when he tried to do so, Ambikā thought that he was coming to harm her and so she tried to hide. Ambikā died in the process and was reborn as a śāsanadevī to the Jina Neminātha. Her husband also died soon afterwards, and was reborn as her lion vāhana.
* In the Svetāmbara Vividhatirthakalpa, the miracles include a magic restoration of the food that was given to the Jain monk and the leaves that served as plates were transformed into gold platters. See Granoff (1993: 183-4). In the Digambara Punyaśravakathā, various gods who had witnessed Kūsmāndini's banishment became angry and burned down the entire town with the exception of Kūşmāndinī's house. On seeing this, the brahmins and the townspeople realized that her house was spared due to her meritorious act of feeding the Jain monk. The brahmins then decided to partake in the food that was once considered polluted but was now divine. This narrative is found in a palm-leaf manuscript located at Jina-Kanchi (JinaKāñcī). See Ramachandran (1934: 157-9).
9 The Vividhatirthakalpa refers to two legends of how she died. In one version, she jumped into a well and in the other she jumped off of a cliff. In both instances, she died with her mind fixed on the best of Jinas and glad that she made the offering to the Jain monk. See Granoff (1993: 184). In the Punyäśravakathā, she died after falling from a precipice into a cave below. See Ramachandran (1934: 158).
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