Ambika on Jaina Art and Literature

Author(s): Maruti Nandan Prasad Tiwari
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 43

ram). Another work based on a Canares tradition and recited by the temple priest at Jina Kāñchi, conceives the four-armed Dharma-devī as seated in lalitasana with her two sons, one on each lap. Her lower two hands resting in the lap support the children while the upper hands bear sword and disc. Her vahana as usual is a lion. The third work-the Yakṣa-Yakṣi-lakṣaṇa-also visualizes the four-armed Dharma-devī as riding a lion and sitting with her two sons, one on each lap. Two of her hands support the sons while in one of the remaining two hands (left) she bears a bunch of mangoes. However, one of her hands (right) is extended towards lion mount.
The figure of Kūṣmaṇḍinī published by James Burgess is noteworthy in this connection inasmuch as it is based on some late Canarese tradition collected by Alexander Rea. 20 Writes Burgess : "The Yakshini is Kūshmaṇḍini-four-armed, with two children in her lap, and a lion as her congnizance. She is the only attendant who has not the front right hand in the varada-hasta attitude." The figure, however, shows the four-armed Yakṣi as seated in lalita pose with simha-vahana close to her feet. The lower two hands of the Yakşi support her sons, seated in lap, while the upper right and left show respectively sword and disc. Thus it is apparent that the rendering of a bunch of mangoes in her hand and also the shade of a mango-tree over her head did not find much favour in south Indian tradition. And instead she was provided with sword and disc in her hands. Contrary to the north Indian tradition, the south Indian works envisage the rendering of both the sons in her lap.
Ambika in Tantric Works
The dhyana-mantras of Ambika given mainly in the appendices of the Bhairava-Padmavati-kalpa reveal the Tantric mode of her worship. The Ambikāṣṭaka (of Ambā-prasāda, c. 12th century A.D.), the Ambika-tāḍamka, the Ambikātāṭarka, the Ambika-stuti and the Ambikä-devi-stuti (of Jineśvara Suri), datable between c. 12th-14th centuries A.D., enjoin her worship in all such Tantric rites as sāntika, paustika, vaśyakarana, mohana, stambhana, duṣṭa-sañcurṇana and uccaṭana. The various Tantric modes include her arcana yantra-vidhi, pitha-sthāpanā and mantra-pūjā alongwith different rites to be performed. Apart from propitiatory rites, the gruesome rites were also accepted and as a consequence the terrific form of
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