Ambika on Jaina Art and Literature

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

Page 91

Khajuraho
Khajuraho, in the Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh, has yielded profuse Brahminical and Jaina vestiges of iconographic and religious interest which vouch for the artistic dexterity and craving, and also the material affluence, of the artist of Khajuraho. Besides, about 32 new Jaina temples, there are three old Jaina temples at Khajuraho, namely, the Pārśvanatha (c. 950-70 A.D.), the Ghaṇṭāi (late 10th century A.D.) and the Adinatha (latter half of the 11th century A.D.). All these temples are dedicated to the first Jina Ṛṣabhanatha who was accorded the most favoured position at the site. The entire group of the Jaina temples and so also the sculptures at Khajuraho, spread over c. 950 to 12th century A.D., is the product exclusively of the Digambara Jaina sect. The images of only 13 out of 24 Jinas are found in Khajuraho collections. The Yakṣa and Yakṣi invariably join the Jinas but the representation of all the 24 Sasana-devatās was not shown in Khajuraho. However, the standardized and distinctive forms of only three Yakṣa-Yakṣi pairs, namely, Gomukha and Cakreśvari, Kubera (or Sarvānubhuti) and Ambika and Dharanendra and Padmavati, the Sasana-devatās respectively of Rṣabhanatha, Neminatha and Pārśvanatha, were known to the Khajuraho sculptors.
Ambika has enjoyed great prominence in Khajuraho which is evident from the eleven independent figures of Ambika at the site, besides a number of tiny figures, carved on the door-lintels.4 The images of Ambika at Khajuraho, datable between c. mid 10th to the 12th century A.D., are very much in agreement with the canonical injunctions which invariably conceive the two-armed Ambika with amra-lumbi and child in her hands and lion as her mount. The earliest figure of Ambika at Khajuraho is carved on the south facade of the Pārsvanatha temple wherein the two-armed Ambika (Fig. 31, on page 81) stands gracefully on a bracket and holds a bunch of mangoes in her right hand, while with her left she supports a child, clinging to her breast. It may be noted that it is a solitary example of two-armed Ambika at Khajuraho. The figure, however, agrees in regard to the attributes with the descriptions available in the Pratistha-säroddhara and the Pratistha-tilaka. Several bunches of mangoes are beautifully delineated at the back drop of the image. The second son of Ambika, somewhat grown up, stands close to her on right and holds possibly a fruit in one hand. The figures of her mount lion and Jina Neminatha to be
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