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JANUARY, 1975
Cakresvari, the Yaksini of the first Tirthankara Rsabhanatha is also a later goddess, for in all earlier representations, antedating c.900 A.D., it is Ambika who figures as the Yaksini of Rsabhanatha and all other Tirthankaras (cf. the image installed by Jinabhadra Vacanacarya, Akota hoard). Her iconography shows close similarity with that of the Hindu Vaisnavi. Cakresvari Yaksi invariably carries the cakra and shows in the other arms, the conch, the varada mudra, the disc, etc. Like Vaisnavi she rides on the eagle.
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It is often difficult to differentiate between images of Cakresvari, the Yaksi and the Vidyadevi, if the goddess is not accompanied by the figure of a Jina (either on her crown or above the pedestal). Apraticakra, the Vidyadevī, is earlier in origin than the Yaksi of the same type.
Siddhayika replaced Ambika as the Yaksi of Mahavira, during the process in which separate Yaksas and Yaksinis were evolved for each Jina. Though she is regarded as one or the four principal Yaksinis, she could not become so popular as the other three Yaksinis, namely Cakresvari, Padmavati and Ambika.
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