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Four More Popular Yaksinis
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these three sculptures. Khajuraho, the findspot of this sculpture, was also a strong Jaina centre. However if the vāhana is not the eagle here this sculpture may represent any other goddess, perhaps a Hindu devi.
Prajnapti, the yakși of the third Tirthankara Sambhava, is the only other Jaina goddess who has, like Cakreśvari, a bird as her vāhana. But the bird in the case of Prajñapti is not always specified and the Canarese dhyāna ślokas referred to by Ramachandran inform us that it is the swan (hamsa). Again, Prajñapti is known to have been worshipped in only two varieties of forms, namely, the two-armed and the six-armed. Thus she is different from Cakreśvari, ten-armed forms of whom are already known. Further, Cakreśvari was more popular amongst the Jaina devotees of Khajuraho, and a terrific form of the goddess is not wholly unwarranted in Jaina traditions. A Cakreśvari-astakam of unknown authorship prescribes a terrific form of the goddess for worship in various Jaina Tantric rites.38
A ten-armed form portrayed on one of the door-lintels of the Pärsvanātha temple, Khajuraho, has been noted by Klaus Bruhn.39 According to him, the goddess shows in her right hands the padma (?), the cakra, the gada, the khadga and the abhaya-mudra and in the left ones, the cakra, the bow, the khețaka, the gadā and the conch.
Tiwari has noted a ten-armed form of this yakşi on a sculpture of Rşabhanātha in the Pārsvanātha temple, Khajuraho. The yakşi shows the varada, sword, mace (gadà), cakra, padna (?), cakra, bow, shield, gada and conch in her ten hands.
6. Twelve-Armed Variety
The twelve-armed form of the goddess seems to have been very popular since several texts describe it. According to the Pratişthāsärasamgraha of Vasunandi,40 the Pratisthāsároddhāra of Ašādhara 41 and the Pratişthā-tilaka of Nemicandra, 42 the goddess Cakreśvari has either twelve or four arms. In the former case, she carries the vajra in each hand of the uppermost pair, four pairs of hands in the middle all carry a disc, while the lowermost pair shows the varada and the citron. Yellow in complexion, the goddess sits on the lotus and rides the garuda.
The above tradition is followed by the palm-leaf manuscript of Yakşa-Yakşi-laksana noted by Ramachandran.43 But the earliest known Digambara text describing this form is the Kannada Adipuranam of Pampa completed in 941 A.D. S. Settar, quoting from it, 44 has shown that according to Pampa, Cakreśvari, riding on the eagle, has twelve arms, with the varuda mudra and the padma in two, the vajras in two others and the disc (cakra) in each of the remaining eight hands. Golden in complexion, she is terrific in appearance.
A figure of Cakreśvari illustrating this variety is available at Venur in the Mysore State where in a Jaina temple are preserved sculptures of all the twenty-four Tirthankaras with their yakşas and yaksinīs. Here Cakreśvari stands on the left of a figure of Adinātha and carries (JOI, op. cit., fig. 33) the vajra in each of the two uppermost pair of hands, the cakra in each hand of the four middle pairs and the lotus in the lowermost right hand; the corresponding left one is held in the varada pose.
A fragment of a sculpture representing a Covisi of Adinātha is preserved in the Museum of Indian Historical Research Institute, St. Xavier's College, Bombay (JOI, op. cit., fig. 34).45 Cakreśvart here stands in the tribhanga and carries the same set of symbols but in a slightly modified order. The four upper pairs of hands carry the cakra, the fifth holds the vajra in each hand, the lowermost right hand shows the lotus while the mutilated corresponding left one probably showed the varada-mudra.
A sculpture of Adinātha is being worshipped in the Settara Basadi, Mudabidri, Mysore State. Here on the left side of the Jina is carved a standing Cakresvari carrying the discs in the first eight hands beginning from the top, and the vajra in each of the two next ones. But the symbols of the lowermost pair of hands are interchanged and the goddess here carries the lotus in her left hand and shows the right one in the varada-mudrā.
Markuli, a small village in the Mysore State, has a Jaina Basti constructed in 1173 A.D. In the chief cell, in the main temple, is an image of Adiśvara and in the sukanāsi are a male and a female
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