________________
ANCIENT JAINA HYMNS
a row of cities on the northern and southern slope respectively, directly below the cities of the Vyantara gods. Dharana then installed Nami and Vinami as the rulers of the semi-divine "Vidyadharas", by which name they and their followers became known, Nami ruling in the south, and Vinami in the north.
Each of these two rulers was the lord of 8 "Vidyadhara-nikāyas", to each of which a particular group of "vidyās" was apportioned. The 16 "Vidyādharanikayas" were named after the countries from where the pertinent group of Vidyadharas had originally emigrated, and the several "vidya" groups were named accordingly. Lists of the names of these 16 groups of “vidyās” are given in Prakrit in the "Vasudevahindi" and the "Avasyaka-cūrņi”, and in Sanskrit in the "Triṣaṣṭisalākāpuruṣa-carita", all three deviating from one another in several items. According to the lastnamed text, these "vidya"-groups were 1. Gauri-, 2. Manu-, 3. Gandhārī-, 4. Mānavī-, 5. Kausiki-, 6. Bhū-, mituṇḍā-, 7. Múlavīryā-, S. Šaňkukā-, 9. Pāṇḍukī-, 10. Kali-, 11. Śvapākī-, 12. Mātaǹgi-, 13. Parvati, 14. Vamsalaya-, 15. Pāṁsumulā-, and 16. Vṛkṣamūlā-vidyās. Out of these names, the "Subodhika" mentions only Nos. 1 and 3, as belonging to the southern, and 9 and 14, as belonging to the northern part of "Vidyadhara”
land.
Besides these "vidya"-groups, the "Avasyakacūrṇi” and the "Subodhikā" mention four individual “mahāvidyās”, viz., 1. Gaurī, 2. Gandhārī,' 3. Rohiṇī, and 4. Prajñapti. Haribhadra Suri, obviously following
(1) These two vidyas are also mentioned in the Sütrakṛtauga-Sūtra (II, 2, Sutra 30, p. 318).
72
