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152
Holy Abu
In the Bhamati of this shrine are 24 smaller cells, 4 chhatris with footprints etc., and one cell dedicated to the goddess Ambika. The 24 cells were constructed in V.S. 1960 and the pratiṣṭhā (consecration) ceremony took place in V.S. 1960 and the pratiṣṭhā (consecration) ceremony took place in V.S. 1963, but the four chhatris and the cell of Ambika are older.
1
In each of the 24 cells is an image of a Jina; the image of Parshvanatha, a Pañchatirthi sculpture, in one of these cells, has an inscription on it dated in V.S. 1380, (c. 1224 A.D.). Under the chhatris are footprints of some yatis with modern inscriptions, besides a small older marble image of Sarasvati and a small but beautiful image of a Yakṣa riding on an elephant (probably it represents the yakṣa Manibhadra). 3.
There is besides a stone-paṭṭa of the Siddha-chakra diagram with an inscription dated in V S. 1558. In the cell of Ambika is an image of the goddess Ambikā.
In this shrine there are in all 27 images of Tirthankaras, 4 pairs of footprints, I idol of Sarasvati, 1 of Ambika, I
1 Abu, Vol. II. Inscription No. 487.
2 (For a photograph, vide, Iconography of the Jaina Goddess Sarasvati, by U. P. Shah, in Journal of the University of Bombay, September 1941, Fig. 30, p. 209. The image seems to date from c. 14th Century A.D.-Translator.). It seems that worship of Sarasvati existed on Achalagadh from olden times, and this image was formerly installed elsewhere in the shrine, possibly in the cell of Chakreshvari (or Ambikā). Kumbhā Rāņā seems to have decided matters of policy towards various sects, by holding councils before an image of goddess Sarasvati as can be inferred from an inscription, dated V.S. 1506, now near the Kirtistambha in the precincts of Lūņavasahi at Delvāḍā.
3 This is the most beautiful figure of the Jaina Manibhadra I have seen hitherto and possibly the oldest since revival of his worship-Translator,
