Ambika on Jaina Art and Literature

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

Page 71

16
Tejapāla Temple,
Mt. Abu, 13th century
17
Mt. Abu, c. 13th century
bearing attendants. The figures of male and female devotees are also carved. The representation of four or six female figures, dancing and playing on different musical instruments, is also interesting. Ambikā, embellished with karanda-mukuta and other usual ornaments, appears as a graceful boon-conferring goddess. The figures have the following accession numbers 11A, B (Fig.16), 17A (Fig. 17), D and 18 (Fig. 18). In one of the examples, carved in the ceiling of the portico attached to the ranga-mandapa on west, the 68 female figures, arranged in three concentric bands, are also shown. These female figures, carved as dancing and playing on various musical instruments, are usually identified as dik-kumārīs but their actual meaning is yet to be clearly ascertained. Thus, Ambika in Lūņa Vasahi is represented only with two hands and without any variety in her form.
The Kharatara Vasahi (A.D. 1459) has yielded four figures of Ambikā. In all the instances, Ambika, seated in lalitasana and possessing four hands, rides a lion. In two examples, she is accompanied by her elder son Subhankara also. These figures, sometimes attended by female dancers and camaradhārins, exhibit two different sets of attri
Ambika