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Four More Popular Yaksinis
229 year 1675 v.s., according to the inscription on its pedestal, is being worshipped in the temple of Ajitanātha, Caumukha tuoka, Satruñjaya. The goddess sits in the lalita pose and shows, in her four right hands beginning from the top, the abhaya, the noose, the goad and the bow. In her topmost left hand is carried the arrow while in the lowermost one is shown the vajra; symbols of the two remaining left hands cannot be identified.
Another image of Cakreśvari, from a niche in the same furika (mountain way or street) at Satruñjaya, though of a date as late as the year 1893 v.s., according to the inscription on its pedestal, is noteworthy. It represents the goddess sitting in padmasana with the eagle as her vāhana and showing, in her four right hands, the abhaya, the arrow, the cakra, and the snake in order beginning from the topmost one, while in her left hands are shown, in a similar order, the bow, the disc, an unidentified symbol and the goad. There is a miniature figure of Adinātha overhead.
A bronze figure of Cakreśvari, eight-armed, with a small figure of a Jina overhead, and the eagle vehicle on the pedestal, shows her carrying the cakra in each of the three upper pairs of hands and showing the varada mudra with the lower right hand and the citron with the lower left.21 The bronze is preserved in the National Museum, New Delhi. .
Tiwari has noted a figure of Cakreśvari in ceiling of cell no. 10, Lūņa-vasahi, Abu, datable in c. 1230 A.D., showing the varada mudrā, the cakra, the vyākhyāna mudra, cakra, cakra, lotus-bud, cakra and fruit.21a
4. Eighteen-Armed Variety
No dhyana is known for this variety but a miniature painting (figure 77) on a folio from a palm-leaf manuscript of Trişaşțišalakāpuruşacarita, copied in c. fourteenth century, shows the goddess carrying, in her right hands, the cakra, arrow, goad, lotus, vajra, sword and an indistinct object and showing the varada and the vyakhyana mudrās. Corresponding left hands show the cakra, bow, noose, sword (?), shield, vajra, indistinct object and the abhaya (?). The eagle váhana is shown in the right corner. The folio is in the collection of Sri Rajendrasimhaji Singhi who kindly permitted me to photograph it.
B. CAKREŚVARI OR APRATICAKRĀ (DIGAMBARA)
In the Digambara tradition, Cakreśvari is worshipped in eight different varieties of forms: (1) the two-armed, (2) the four-armed, (3) the six-armed, (4) the eight-armed, (5) the ten-armed, (6) the twelvearmed, (7) the sixteen-armed and (8) the twenty-armed. The goddess is worshipped in both the sitting and the standing postures although her standing figures are rare. She is generally represented seated in the lalita pose and her vähana is invariably the eagle. Dhyanas for only the four, twelve and sixteen-armed forms are found in literature, but the popularity of the goddess in Digambara worship, especially in sites like Devgadh and Khajuraho, is evident from a large number of figures traced hitherto. The cakra (disc) remains the chief distinguishing symbol of Cakreśvari in Digambara tradition also.
1. Two-Armed Variety
A Covisi (Caturvimsati-par/a) of Ādin itha, preserved in temple no. 9 at Devgadh, near Lalitpur, has a small figure of the two-armed Cakreśvari carrying the cakra in the right hand and the kalasa (pot) in the left one. The sculpture belongs to c. twelfth century A.D.
On a sculpture of Rşabhanätha, no, K.44 in the Khajuraho Museum, two-armed yakşi Cakreśvari shows the abhaya mudra and the cakra in her hands.
We have referred to a bronze image of Adinatha from Sanauli, Alwar district, Rajasthan. The bronze is dated in V.s. 1070 = A.D. 1013. On the right lower end is a two-armed cow-faced Gomukha Yaksa showing the citron in his right hand while on the corresponding left end is a two-armed Yakşi Cakreśvari with the cakra in her left hand. The symbol of her right hand is indistinct.
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