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JAIN JOURNAL
yarada-mudrā, a mace and a disc. 3 The rendering of the Yaksi corresponds to a great extent with the prescriptions of the Digambara iconographic texts which conceive the four-armed Cakresvari as riding over a garuda and bearing a disc and the varada-mudrā as the chief attributes.
Ambika, the Yaksi of the 22nd Jina Neminatha, holds an āmralumbi, a spiral lotus, a spiral lotus in her three hands, while with the remaining one she supports a child sitting in her lap and touching her bosom. Beneath the seat is carved a lion, her mount, and by her right leg is sitting her second son with a citron in his hand. Over the head of Ambika there appears a diminutive figure of her Jina and also the branches of a mango-tree. The present figure of Ambika is chiselled fully in conformity with the injunctions of the iconographic texts of the Digambara sect so far as the rendering of lion as mount and an āmralumbi and a child as her distinguishing attributes are concerned. The only departure from the tradition in her representation is noticed as to the number of hands of Ambika, who has invariably been visualized in the Digambara canons as possessing two hands. The two additional hands bearing spiral lotuses in the present instance perhaps speak of some unknown tradition. It would be relevant here to note in passing that Cakresvari and Ambika enjoyed the foremost prominence among all the Yaksis at Kh
Padmavati, the Yaksi of the 23rd Jina Parsvanatha, is shaded by the five-headed snake canopy. She shows the varada-mudrā, a noose, and a goad in her three hands, while the fourth one is mutilated. Close to her seat is carved her conveyance what appears to be a kukkuța. The rendering of Padmavati figure conforms to the iconographic prescriptions of the Digambara works which enunciate kukkuta as her mount and a goad and a noose as her chief emblems. The canopy of cobra hoods is also envisaged for her.
The worship of the navagrahas in Jaina tradition was assimilated in the remote past. They constitute an important class of gods grouped as Jyotiska Devas. Their iconographic features are detailed in Jaina texts of the eleventh-twelfth centuries A.D. The separate figures of the navagrahas are not known. Nevertheless, they are represented in group on the
the lower
3 The attributes of the Yaksis are reckoned clockwise starting from
right hand. • Pratisthasarasamgraha, 5.15-16, Pratisthasaroddhara, 3.156. 5 Pratisthasaroddhara, 3.176, Pratisthatilakam, 7.22, p. 347. & pasankusau padmavare raktavarna caturbhuja padmasana kukkutastha khyata padmavatiti ca Aparajitaprccha, 221.37; also see Pratisthasaroddhara, 3.174.
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