Jain Journal 2003 04

SR No.: 520150
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 2003
Total Pages: 42
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 16

JAINA YAKȘI AMBIKĀ: BAHUPUTRIKĀ TO ŠAKTI
DR MARUTI NANDAN TIWARI
The popular worship of female principle as 'Mother', representing fertility cult, was adopted by the Jainas in the form of an early yakşi Bahuputrikā (one having many children) who towards the close of 6th century A.D., was transformed into yakși Ambikā, the Śāsanadevi of 22nd Jina Neminātha or Aristanemi. Thus the Jaina Ambikā is a clear cut example of the assimilation of popular belief of the Mother goddess in Jaina worship to formulate the form of one of the most favoured yakṣi which is specifically shown with two sons. Her popularity doubtlessly was mainly due to her symbols of fertility such as a pair of sons, the amralumbi (a bunch of mango fruits), and a mango tree and as a consequence, people propitiated her for begetting children. In one of the Jaina Tāntric passages (Ambikā tādanka, c. 13th century A.D.), it is clearly stated that, by the worship of Amb the devotees are blessed with children (putram labhate). The association of lion as mount however is suggestive of Sakti aspect. The general assumption is that the Jaina Ambikā, also called as Ambā, Kūşmāņdini, Bālādevi is borrowed from the Brahmanical pantheon.
At a later stage between the 10th and 13th centuries A.D. some features of Sakti were also introduced in Jaina yakși Ambikā, as is evidenced by the details available in different iconographic texts wherein she is conceived with some such attributes as goad, noose, thunderbolt, ghantā (bell), sword and disc to manifest her Sakti or Power aspect. She was also endowed with such appellations and attributes, both in literature and art, which at once suggest her affinity with Brahmanic Durgā or Ambikā. Some of the stotras devoted to Ambikā in the Bhairava-Padmāvati-Kalpa (11th century A.D.) bear testimony to this fact. The terrific form of Ambikā propitiated in a number of Tāntric rites such as Santika, Pauștika, Stambhana, Māraṇa etc. are also enunciated in some of the stutis and the stotras given in the appendices of the Bhairava-Padmăvatī-Kalpa. Apart from the propitiatory rites, the gruesome rites were also accepted in the Tantric mode of her worship. The Ambikā-devi-stuti of Jineśvara-Sūri (c. 12th century A.D.) rightly invokes her as lagniianani and Inoat-cwmini