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Dr. Charlotte Krause : Her Life & Literature
as entities, developed separately in two different directions, incorporating, of course, single items, which represented a common heritage, such as the names of Śāsana-devīs, Nos. 1, 23 and 24, as well as those of the pertinent Vidyā-devis, pointed out above. Significantly enough, even those eight Vidyā-devi-names which are common to the list of the 11 taken over by the Svetāmbaras, and the 13 taken over by the Digambaras as Śāsana-devi-names, have been apportioned to different Tīrtharkaras. This accounts for the fact that Vairoțyā, the thirteenth Vidyā-devī, who alone interests us here, has become associated with the 13th Jina in Digambara, but with the 19th in Svetāmbara theology.
The name of the Vidyā-devi Vairotyā occurs in the forms of ‘Vairotyā 207 in Saṁskrta and 'Vairoțī’208, as well as 'Vaīruļļā’209, in Prāksta sources. All the texts, so far as they give a description, agree in depicting her as holding a snake, or snakes, in one, or two respectively, of her four hands. The 'Nirvāņakalikā' further describes her as 'śyāma-varņa', and mounted on a Boa constrictor ( 'ajagara-vāhana' ), Sāgaracandra Sūri in his Sri-Mantrādhirājakalpa' ( st. 15 )210 as ‘payodharābhā' and mounted on a 'vihangarāja', and the likewise Svetārbara 'Ācāradinakara' as 'abja-mudatāra-tușāra-gaură”211 and seated on a lion ( ‘simhavāhana' ), while according to the Digambara 'Pratișthă-sāroddhāra', she is ‘abhranīlā' or 'haritā’212 and seated on a lion ('simhagā').
It appears that Bappabhatti Sūri and Sobhana Muni refer to this Vidyā-devi when they eulogize a goddess ‘Vairotyā' each in the fourth stanza of one of the stutis of their famous 'Caturvimsatikās 213 ( Nos. 18 and 23 respectively), the former describing her as 'śyāma' and 'nāgāstra-patră' ( i.e., 'having snakes as weapon and vehicle' ), and the latter as 'śyāma-dehä', as 'avisama-vișabhțdbhüşana' (i.e., 'having harmless snakes as ornaments ), and as 'yātā .... pārindra-rājam (i.e., ‘mounted on a king of pythons').
The only serious discrepancy, viz., that re the mount, which according to some sources is a snake, according to others a lion, and
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