Ambika on Jaina Art and Literature

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

Page 88

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Deogarh (Lalitpur, U.P.), c. 10th century (p. 71)
their invariable rendering in the sculptures of ninth-tenth century A.D. at Deogarh and elsewhere.
The other two instances of the four-armed Ambikā, assignable to 11th-12th century A.D., are carved on the free-standing pillars adjacent respectively to the temple Nos. 11 (A.D. 1059) and 16 (12th century A.D.). In the former instance, Ambikā hold amralumbi, goad and noose in three hands while with the remaining one she supports a child, holding a fruit. Over her head as usual are carved a small figure of Jina and the branches of mango tree. Close to her seat, there also appears lion mount. The other image, exhibiting identical attributes, however, does not contain the figure of her conveyance.
It should be noted here in passing that the rendering of goad and noose in uppper two hands of the four-armed Ambikā at Deogarh, like the identical figures in the temple No. 13 at Khajurāho, is apparently guided by the prescriptions of the Svetāmbara texts which invariably conceive the four-armed Ambikā with these attributes. Such a borrowing, noticed also in cases of the figures of some other deities at the site, at once suggests a welcome trans-sectarian trend prevalent at Deogarh between the ninth and