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Four More Popular Yakşinis
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the yaksior and the vidyadevi are already known it is not impossible that the figures in the Vimala-vasahi might have represented the Cakreśvari yakşini even though the form might have been later borrowed for the vidyādevi at Kumbharia. These identifications should be regarded as tentative and may be revised in the light of future definite evidence from stone, canvas or metal.
A later form of Cakreśvari of c. sixteenth century A.D., with the varada symbol replaced by the rosary, is available in the case of the big sculpture of Cakreśvari, worshipped as Vyāghreśvari in the Våghana pole, Satruñjaya. Here the eagle vehicle is replaced by the tiger which gives the name Vyāghreśvari to the goddess in layman's worship. Almost all later examples of Cakreśvari at Satrunjaya demonstrate this change of vehicle, another example being preserved in the same locality in a small temple of Cakreśvari. Here a small four-armed figure, with the disc in the two upper hands and the varada-mudra shown by the two lower ones, sits in the lalita pose with the tiger as her vehicle. The whole figure is covered with red paint.
A temple supposed to have been built by Vimala sa ha in the Vāghana pole, Satruñjaya, has many interesting figures for a student of iconography. On the front wall of cell no. 392, is a figure of Cakreśvar in a standing attitude with the eagle as her vāhana. She carries the cakra in her right upper hand, the noose in the left upper, and the goad (?) in the right lower one, while the left lower hand is held in the varada pose.
The door-frame of the śāntinātha temple at Acalagarh, Mt. Abu, has on one side a figure of Gomukha, the yakşa of Adinátha while on the other is a figure of a goddess carrying the noose and the goad in the right and the left upper hands respectively while showing the varada and the conch in the corresponding lower hands. The eagle is her vahana. Obviously, she must be Cakreśvari, the yaksini of Ādinātha whose yakşa, Gomukha by name, already figures on the other side. The temple was, therefore, originally dedicated to Adinatha.
The central shrine of the Pittalahara temple at Dilwara, Mt. Abu, contains a big metal sculpture of Adinātha with figures of Gomukha and Cakeśvari on its pedestal (JOT, op. cit., fig. 14). Cakreśvari here sits in the lalita pose and carries the cakra in each of the two upper hands and the rosary in the right lower one. The left lower carries an object which looks like the vajra (?). A miniature figure of the eagle is shown as her vāhana. The image is dated 1525 v.s., according to the inscriptions on the pedestal and the parikara.
On the back wall of the shrine of Neminātha at Kumbharia is a figure of a goddess sitting in the lalita pose with the club and the disc in the right and the left upper hands respectively and showing the varada and the conch in the corresponding lower ones (JOI, op. cit., fig. 15). There is also a figure of the Hindu Ganeša on this wall. A standing goddess with the same set of symbols is also available on a pillar in the same temple. This pillar has a standing Sarasvati on another side, a goddess with all the symbols mutilated on the third side and on the fourth side an unidentified goddess showing the sword, the shield, the parada and the citron in her four hands and with the lotus as her cognizance. It has to be seen whether the type of figure illustrated in JOI, op. cit., fig. 15, with the club and the disc in her upper hands represents Cakreśvari, the yaksi, or Apraticakrā, the vidyādevi or any other deity.
Since it is not certain whether the other three figures on the pillar noted above form a group with this goddess, either of yaksinis or of vidyadevis, the goddess on this pillar can be either of them. Now even if JOI, op. cit., fig. 15 on the shrine wall were regarded as one of the Mätskas, Vaisnavi by name, since at least Ganesa who is known to accompany a set of Måtskås, is figured on the same wall, the pillar sculpture of the same variety of form, just referred to, does not seem to have been intended to represent the Vaisnavi Mátykä as no other Mátyka is found in this group of pillars. She may, therefore, be Cakresvari, the yaksini of Adinatha with her form borrowed directly from the Vaisnavi Matkâ or indirectly through a similar form of the Digambara yakşi Cakre vari discussed in the following pages.
Mātrkās are not unknown to Jaina ritual and sculpture. The Acüradinakara invokes eight Matkās in the Sasthisamskäravidhi.! They are also invoked in a rite prescribed in the Digambara text Vidyānuśāsana. The Vimala-vasahi preserves figures of Brahmāni, Kaumari and Maheśvari in the ceiling facing cell no. 23.11« The fourth goddess in this ceiling cannot be identified. In the adjoining ceiling opposite
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