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Jaina-Rupa-Mandana
figures, both in the sitting postures. The female figure, apparently a yakşi, has twelve arms. In her four right and four left hands, she carries the cakra; in one right and one left hand, she holds the vajra, while she holds the lotus in the sixth left hand and shows the varada-mudra in the corresponding right one.46 Obviously, she represents the Digambara Jaina yakși Cakreśvari (Fig. 113).
The Aparajita-prccha, a silpa text, describes the above-mentioned set of symbols with the difference that the varada is replaced by the abhaya-mudra. She sits on the lotus and has the eagle as her vahana.47 The Devatamurtiprakarana also describes this form besides the four-armed one already discussed.48
A big relief sculpture of Cakreśvari is carved on the left wall of the verandah of the Bārābhuji cave, Khandagiri, Orissa (figure 70). The cave derives its name from this twelve-armed figure of Cakreśvari. The goddess sits in the lalita asana on a big double-lotus below which are carved miniature figures of a male and a female worshippers. Above the goddess-figure is a miniature figure of Rṣabhanatha with his bull symbol. The devi therefore represents the yakși of the first Jina. Cakreśvari here shows in her left hands the following symbols in a descending order, namely, the cakra, an unidentified symbol, the shield, the cakra, the vajra, and the pravacana (or vitarka) mudra. In her right hands are shown in a corresponding order the cake, the sword, a symbol now mutilated, an unidentified symbol, the vajra and the varada mudrä.49
On the left wall of the cave are figures of five Tirthankaras. The first is Rsabha with the bull symbol. Below the relief of this Jina is his twelve-armed yakși Cakreśvari with the eagle (garuḍa) vāhana. Of her six right hands one is in varada and the rest hold a thunderbolt (vajra), two discs (cakra), rosary (akşamala) and a sword; three of her left hands hold a shield, disc and the stalk of a flower; the attributes of the three others are badly damaged.50
In a big relief panel in a wall to the left of the passage near the entrance of Cave 30, Ellora,51 is carved a beautiful figure of Cakreśvari sitting in padmasana on a big lotus (very much worn out) below which is her human-faced eagle vehicle. The sculpture dates from c. end of the ninth century A.D. Above the head of the devi is a figure of a Jina sitting in padmasana on a lotus. Almost all the right hands of the devi except two are broken and lost. The symbol of the lowermost right hand is mutilated while the hand just above it holds a big sword. Of the six left hands, beginning from the topmost one, the symbols visible are a mace-like object, the cakra, and the conch. Symbol of the normal left hand is mutilated (Fig. 155).
The unidentified manuscript from Jina-Kanchi noticed by Ramachandran gives different iconographic details.52 According to it Cakreśvari has three eyes and rides the eagle. The deity shows the śakti and the vajra in two hands, eight discs in eight hands, and the varada and the lotus in the two remaining hands.
7. Sixteen-Armed Variety
The Canarese Dhyana slokas referred to by T.N. Ramachandran53 describe a sixteen-armed form of this yakṣi. According to this text, one right hand shows the varada mudra while the corresponding left shows the kataka pose. Another right and its corresponding left rest on the lap (perhaps in the dhyana mudra), while the remaining hands hold different weapons of war (not specified). The garuda is her vähana.
The drawing published by Burgess from a Canarese tradition may be compared with this form.54 Here the two uppermost hands show the discs (?), while the two lowermost are placed on the lap. One right hand is held in the abhaya mudra while the corresponding left shows the pravacana mudra. The goddess sits in the lalita pose with the eagle vehicle beside her left leg. Symbols of the ten remaining hands are not given in the drawing, but they are supposed to carry various weapons.
A sixteen-armed standing Cakreśvari was discovered at Gandhaval, old Gwalior state, now in M.P. In her upper right hands are seen the sword and the disc, in one of the left hands is seen the cakra. Symbols of remaining hands are mutilated and indistinct (JOI, op. cit., fig. 37),55
R.P. Mohapatra has referred to some more twenty-armed figures of Cakreśvari in Orissa.56
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