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Another Rare Icon of the Digambara Padmavati
The twenty-four armed form of the yakşi Padmavati is a Digambara conception of the goddess. There are two texts only in which her iconography is known to have been dealt in detail. These are the Pratiṣṭhāsārasangraha of Vasunandi (c. 12th century)1 and the Padmavati Stotra, a text of unknown authorship and uncertain date. No image of this form of Padmavati was known until the present author published one which is based on the description as mentioned in the Pratiṣṭhāsārasangraha. Here is another rare icon of the twenty-four armed Padmavati which has apparently followed the iconographic description provided in the second text, the Padmavati Stotra.
LALIT KUMAR
According to the Pratiṣṭhāsārasangraha, the yakṣi Padmavati should have either four, six or twenty-four arms.3 She has red complexion and sits on a lotus. In her twenty-four arms she holds a conch, sword, cakra, crescent, blue lotus, bow, spear, noose, ankuśa,5 bell, arrow, pestle,
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1 It is an unedited text of which two manuscripts are known. The one popularly known as Ara ms. mentioned by B. C. Bhattacharya in his The Jaina Iconography, and the second ms. is in the collection of L.D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad.
2 Lalit Kumar, "A Rare Icon of Padmavati dated 1636 A.D.", Marg, vol. XXX, pp. 73-74.
3 devi padmavati namna raktavarna caturbhuja
padmasanam kusam dhatte aksasutram ca pankajam athava sadbhuja devi caturvimsati sadbhuja pasasikuntavalendugadamusalasanyutam bhujastakam samakhyatam caturvimsatirucyate sankhasicakravalendu padmotpalasarasanam sakti pasankusam ghanta bana musalakhetakam
trisulamparasum kuntam vajram bhindamalam phalam gadam patramcapallavam dhatte varada dharmavatsala
-Pratisthasarasangrahams.
Dr. U. P. Shah read it as upala i.e. stone. (Jaina Rupamandana, New Delhi, 1987, p. 276.)
B. C. Bhattacharya read it as kusa i.e. kusa-grass on the basis of the Ara ms. It seems to be a scribal error. (The Jaina Iconography, Revised edition, Delhi, 1974, p. 105.)
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