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Ancient Jaina Hymns
387
nātha, the present hymn celebrates Mahāvīra, the last Tīrtharkara, in its first quarter.
The object of eulogy in the fourth quarter is likewise a different one. In Jinakusala Sūri's stuti, it is the “Sāsana-devatā' quite generally,181 while our poet addresses himself to the goddess 'Vairotyā', whom he visualizes, with extraordinary vividness, as a snake deity of militant qualities and of an apperance fit to fill an adversary's heart with terror, whom he seems to invoke in a spirit of tantric ecstasy and expectation.
Jaina Literature knows several goddesses of this name, as under :
1. In the shape of 'Vairoti', it designates the Śāsana-devī of Vimalanātha, the 13th Tīrtharkara, in Digambara literature. 182 She is represented as 'harivarņā', mounted on a snake ( ‘gonasa'), and holding snakes in her four hands. In Svetāmbara literature, Vimalanātha's female attendant, described as being of the same colour, but seated on a lotus, and holding a single snake, bow, arrow, and noose in her hands, is referred to as “Viditā', or ‘Vijay'.183 The male counterpart in attendence on Vimalanātha is, in both literatures, 'Şanmukha', who is seated on a peacock, and holds various weapons in his twelve (or eight ) hands.184 Our hymn being a Svetāmbara text, this 'Vairoțī' is a priori not likely to be invoked therein, though she is a snake goddess too.
2. In the shape of 'Vairotyā” 185 ( Saṁskrta ), 'Vairuttā’186, "Vaīruttā' 187, or ‘Vasrotā’188 (Prāksta ), the name further designates the Śāsana-devi of Mallinātha, the 19th Tīrthankara, in Svetāmbara works. She is described as “krşņavarṇā', and as seated on a lotus. In Digambara sources, the Śāsana-devi of Mallinātha is 'Aparājitā’,189 described as 'harid-varņā', and as seated on that fabulous creature named 'astapāda' or 'sarabha'190. Both sects agree re the attributes in three of her hands, viz., ‘varada-mudrā', citrus-fruit and sword, while the fourth carries as rosary according to the Svetāmbaras, but a shield according to the Digambaras. Her male counter-part is,
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