Book Title: Jain Rup Mandan
Author(s): Umakant P Shah
Publisher: Abhinav Publications

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Page 239
________________ 226 Jaina-Rapa-Mandana the varada pose in the right lower hands. Similar representations of the yakși are found at Rāṇakapur (Jodhpur State) in the Dharaṇavihara temple, on the pedestal of Adinatha on the northern side of the central Caumukha sculpture and on the door-frame of the cell no. 3. The same form is also available on the pedestal of a sculpture of Ṛşabhanatha in the Pañcasara temple, Patan, and in a cell in the Caumukha tunka, Satruñjaya. The latter pedestal is inscribed in the year 1380 v.s. It seems that this form which, as noted above, was worshipped as the Cakreśvart vidya in the Vimala-vasahi was later borrowed for the yakṣiņi of the same name from at least the fourteenth century A.D. A sculpture, worshipped as 'Sri Cakreśvari Mata' in the Balabhai tunka, Satruñjaya, and inscribed in the year 1758 v.s. (=1701 A.D.), shows the goddess seated in the lalita pose on a tiger vehicle and carrying the same set of symbols in her four hands. This change of her vahana is seen in two more cases in Vaghapa pole, Satruñjaya, noticed in the following pages. A miniature painting on folio 2 of the palm-leaf manuscript of the first parva of the Triṣaṣṭisalākāpurușa-carita (of Hemacandra) also represents the goddess with the discs in her two upper hands and the varada-mudra and the citron in the right and the left lower hands respectively. Golden in complexion, the goddess sits in the lalita pose on a cushion, in front of which is seen a partly defaced face of her garuda vahana (JOI, XX.3, op. cit., fig. 7).9 An earlier figure of Cakreśvari, with the varada-mudra in the above form replaced by the abhaya is available on a bronze Covisi of Rṣabhanatha (JOI, op. cit., fig. 8) from an underground cell of the Dharaṇavihara temple at Ränakapur. The sculpture can be assigned to c. late eleventh century A.D. on stylistic grounds and on the grounds of the small inscription on its back. A noteworthy feature of this bronze is the presence of a two-armed yakşa carrying the citron and the bag instead of the cow-faced four-armed Gomukha, the yakṣa of Rṣabhanatha according to the Jaina texts. On the Covisi bronze from Gogha, dated in V.S. 1123=A.D. 1067, we obtain a similar form of Yakṣi Cakreśvari. A similar form of Cakreśvari is also seen on the pedestal of a sculpture of Adinatha, of a later date of course, in the Adiśvara temple, Khadakhotadi, Patan (JOI, op. cit., fig. 10). The representation of the disc, done in a rather curious fashion, is the work of a crude hand. A beautiful bronze image of Rsabhanatha being worshipped in the Covisi temple, Godaḍano pãdo, Patan (JOI, op. cit., fig. 9) and consecrated in the year 1606 v.s., according to the inscription on its back, shows yet another variety of the four-armed Cakreśvari figures. Here the yakşı carries the cakra in each of the two upper hands and shows the varada mudra and the pot in her right and the left lower hands respectively.10 The goddess sits in the lalita posture. A similar form of the yakşı represented in a standing posture is available on a pillar in the Parsvanatha temple at Kumbharia. In the Vimalavasahi, on two pillars in the mandapa facing the central shrine are available two standing figures of Cakreśvari (JOI, op. cit., figs. 12-13). Fig. 12 shows the goddess standing in the tribhanga with the discs in the two upper hands and the pot in the left lower one; the right lower hand is mutilated. Fig. 13 shows the goddess in a similar posture but with the left lower hand mutilated and the right lower showing the varada-mudra. It is interesting to find a lotus symbol near the right leg of each of the two figures. A standing figure with these four symbols is also found on the right side of the door-frame of the cell no. 39 in the Vimala-vasahi. We have no means to ascertain whether this form of Cakreśvar! was regarded as representing a vidyadevi or a yakṣi of the same name in the age of the Vimala-vasahi. At Kumbharia, however, the case is somewhat different. In the first place, the vähana is the eagle instead of the lotus symbol of the above figures from the Vimala-vasahi. But the lotus symbol is not unknown for Cakreśvari at Kumbharia since on a pillar in a temple we find Cakreśvari with two discs, the varada and the conch and having the lotus as her symbol. In the case of figures showing the varada and the pot in the two lower hands at Kumbharia, the position is as follows: Each pillar has usually four standing deities on its four sides. Now in the case of pillars with this form of Cakreśvari in the Parsvanatha temple at Kumbhäriä, the other deities are Vairotya, Sarasvati, Vajrańkusi or Rohini or a goddess which cannot be recognised. This would, therefore, suggest that at Kumbhäriä, this form of Cakreśvari probably represented the Cakreśvari vidya. But since no other definite example of Cakreśvari vidya with this form is hitherto available and since mutual borrowings of forms of Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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