Encyclopaedia of Jaina Studies Vol 01 Jaina Art and Architecture

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain, Others
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 339

Yakşa-Yakși or Śāsanadevatā
317
sword and disc in her upper right and left hands. The lower right and left hands show respectively the varada- mudră and fruit. The rendering of disc and conch with Siddhāyikā suggests the bearing of iconography of Jaina Yakşi Cakreśvari upon Siddhāyikā which was a peculiar feature of Khajuraho.
In majority of the sculptures of Mahāvīra hailing from Deogadh, two-armed Siddhāyikā, seated in lalitäsana, is portrayed as bearing the abhaya-mudra in right hand and fruit in the left. A Cauvisi of Jinas, all seated with the distinguishing cognizances, astaprātihāryas and Yaksa- Yakşi pairs, is preserved in the Sahu Jaina Museum at Deogadh. The two-armed Yakṣi with Mahāvīra sits in lalitāsana and shows the abhaya-mudra in right hand and a pustaka in the left.
A unique example of twenty-armed Siddhāyikā (c. 12th century A.D.) is depicted on the verandah wall of Barabhuji cave on the Khandagiri hill (Pl. 202). The goddess here shows the varada-mudrā, spear, rosary, arrow, small staff (?), hammer, hala (plough), vajra, disc and sword in her right hands while with her left she carries water-pot, book, citron (?), lotus, bell (?), bow, nāga, vajra and shield. Beneath the figure of Siddhāyikā is sculptured an elephant as conveyance and above her head is carved the figure of Mahāvīra with lion cognizance.
Yaksi Siddhāyikä or Siddhayini (as some sources call her) resembles Sarasvati in some aspects and Jina Mahāvīra himself in the other. Her mount, lion, connects her with the Jina whose cognizance is lion. On the other hand, the manuscript and the Vinā make her analogous to Sarasvati. REFERENCES
B.C. Bhattacharya, The Jaina Iconography, Delhi, 1974 (Reprint); U.P. Shah, Jaina-Rupa-Mandana, New Delhi, 1987, pp. 205-300; Maruti Nandan Pd. Tiwari, Jaina Pratimăvijñāna, Varanasi, 1981, pp. 154-247, Elements of Jaina Iconography, Varanasi, 1983, pp. 5878 and Ambika in Jaina Art and Literature, New Delhi, 1989; P.B. Desai, Jainism in South India and Some Jaina Epigraphs, Sholapur, 1963; T.N. Ramachandran, Tiruparuttikuņram and its Temples, Bull. Madras Govt. Museum, New Series, Vol. I, Pt. 3, Madras, 1934; H.D. Sankalia, 'Jaina Iconography, New Indian Antiquary, Vol. II, 1939-40, pp. 497-520; Klaus Bruhn, The Jina Images of Deogarh, Leiden, 1969; Debala Mitra, "Sāsanadevis in the Khandagiri Caves', Jour. Asiatic Society, Vol. I, No. 2, 1959, pp. 127-133; C. Sivaramamurti, Panorama of Jaina Art (South India), New Delhi, 1983; Pratapaditya Pal (Ed.), The Peaceful Liberators - Jain Art from India, Los Angles, 1994.
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