Jain Journal 1983 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 6

JAIN JOURNAL
names inscribed below. The figures of 18 Yaksis are carved, in vertical rows, on two flanks of Ambika while the remaining five are portrayed, in a horizontal row, in the top parikara. The Yaksis in the top parikara are labelled as Vahurupini, Camunda, Sarasati, Padumavati and Vijaya while those on the two flanks (from top to bottom) are Jaya, Anantamati, Vairota, Gauri, Mahakali, Kali, Pusadadhi and Prajapati (on right), and Aparajita, Mahamanusi, Anantamati, Gandhari, Manusi, Jalamalini, Manuja and Vajrasamkala (on left).
The figure of four-armed Ambika, wearing a long dhoti and bejewelled in graiveyaka, necklaces, girdles (with suspended-loops), anklets, bracelets, armlets and karanda-mukuta, stands as she is in tribhanga. The goddess is provided with stellate cut halo. The small face of the goddess shows benign appearance, while other bodily features reveal sensuousness through flexions and prominent bosoms. Although the hands are damaged, yet foliage of a mango tree overhead and rendering of two sons, Subhankara and Priyankara, along with a lion mount, make the identification of the goddess with Ambika doubtless.? The tiny figure of her Jina, Neminatha, the conch lāñchana, is also carved over her head. Besides Neminātha, the figures of 12 other Jinas, two seated and all others standing in kāyotsarga-mudrā as sky-clad, are also shown in the parikara. The nudity of the Jina figures distinctly relate them with the Digambara sect. The figures of the gaja-vyāla-makara trio as throneframe animals, are rendered on two sides. Close to the feet of Ambikā, there appear a male and a female worshippers, while another figure of a worshipper is shown on the pedastal. The representation of twoarmed Sarvanubhuti (or Kubera) Yakşa, the male counterpart of Ambika, is significant here. He is seated in lalitāsana on the pedastal and holds a mace and a mongoose-skin purse. Another point of interest here is the rendering of two-armed figures of navagrahas on the lowermost part of the pedastal. Of the navagrahas, Surya in utkūţik āsana, holds a longstalked lotus in each of his two hands, while other six grahas, seated in lalitasana, show the abhaya-mudra and a water-vessel. The urdhakāya figure of Rahu is followed by Ketu.
4 The only other instance of the representation of 24 Yaksis with their names is
known from the Santinatha temple (Temple No. 12) at Deogarh. 5 The names of Ambika, Cakresvari and one other unidentified Yaksi, are, how
ever, not inscribed. Cunningham, A., op. cit., p. 31; Pramod Chandra, Stone Sculptures in Allahabad Museum, Bombay, 1970, p. 162. ? Of the two sons, one on the right is riding on a lion, the vahana of Ambika, while
the other one is standing to her left.