Ambika on Jaina Art and Literature

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

Page 92

shown at the top, are conspicuous by their absence. Another figure of Ambikā (Figs. 32 and 33), carved in a niche above the cornice of the Pārsvanātha temple on south, shows her with four arms. The Yaksi seated in lalitāsana on lotus with its stems spread below, is accompanied by her conventional vāhana lion. She bears lotuses in her two upper hands while the lower right and left hands hold respectively a bunch of mangoes and a child, seated in lap. The child is touching her breast. There appears a diminutive figure of her Jina Neminātha overhead. On each side of her head the foliages of mango tree can be seen. Behind the head of Ambikā is shown a circular halo, consisting of blossom circlet. Both the figures of Pārsvanātha temple are superb from the aesthetic point of view. The rhythmic contours of the body with a smiling face showing benign appearance is very soothing to the eyes
32 On door lintel, Khajurāho, 10th
century
of the visitors. The profuse ornamentation and angularity both of the face and in general treatment of the body give them a peculiar sensitiveness. The face is oval with round chins, prominently carved eyes and eye-brows, nose and lips. They convey a sense of pulsating life and have an irresistible individual attraction. But at the same time the divine aspect is also revealed aptly and the figures appear as supreme divine Mother with two sons and also amra-lumbi, the symbols of fertility, fortune and plenitude.
The Adinātha temple contains three figures of four-armed Ambikā, two carved on the exterior walls and one on the door-lintel. The figure on the western adhisthāna depicts her as sitting on the pedestal in lalita-pose with a lion. She shows a long-stalked rolled-up lotus
78 Ambikä