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Jaina-Rupa-Mandana
In both the Svetambara and the Digambara traditions, Cakreśvari is well known as the yakşiņi or śasana-devata of Adinatha, while the corresponding yakşa is the cow-faced yaksa Gomukha. But curiously enough, a metal sculpture representing a Covisi of Adinātha (i.e. with Adinātha as the main figure in the centre) has a miniature figure of Ambikā placed as the yakşiņi. The yakşa here is the Gomukha who is well-known as the yakşa of Ādinātha. The image is preserved in a temple in Pindwādā, Sirohi State and is installed in the year 1151 v.s. according to an inscription on its back. Two more examples of Ambikā associated with Adinatha in metal sculptures from Sädadi (Jodhapura State) and Idar in the North Gujarat (belonging to c. 10th and 11th centuries respectively) have been discussed elsewhere by this writer.58 Ambikä is further found associated with Mallinátha, Santinātha and Mahavira on some pedestals preserved in the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, and in the Baroda Museum. Similar examples can be multiplied. Thus, though Ambikā is the Sasana-yakși of the twentysecond Jina Neminātha, in earlier examples she is similarly associated with different Tirthankaras. For examples, at Akoță in Gujarat and Dhānka in Kathiawar, she is associated with Rşabhanátha, Paršvanātha respectively. Here the yakşa is a two-armed pot-bellied figure showing close similarity with Kubera and Jambhala of the Hindu and Wirantheons. Let us call him Yakşeśvara or Sarvänubhūti ar Sarvanha.59 A similar pair oi yaksa and yakşiņi is seen on the pedestal of the sculpture of Adinatha from Mathura, no. 78 in the Lucknow Museum. At Ellora, again the same yaksa and Ambika are met with. It seems, therefore, that in early Jaina sculpture this yaksa pair of Kubera-like Yaksa and Ambikā) was installed as the attendant yakşa and yaksini of all the Jinas. We have discussed the problem in the preceding chapter.
The introduction of separate śāsana-devatās for each of the twenty-four Jinas replaced the earlier pair of Yakseśvara and Ambikä (common to all the 24 Jinas) during the transition from the Gupta period to the middle ages and should be assigned to a period between the sixth and the eighth cent. A.D.
Of all the images of Cakreśvari discovered hitherto, the earlier specimens are the four-armed figures from Prabhasa-Patan, Ranakpur, Vimala vasahi, Abu, and Devgadh fort, the ten-armed figure from the Navamuni cave and the twelve-armed one from the Daśabhuja cave, Orissa discussed above. All these figures belong to a period later than the eighth century A.D., which is the lower limit for the introduction of the set of twenty-four säsana-devatās.
The canonical literature of the Jainas does not give a list of the Jaina śasana-devatås. The Svetambara Jaina Canon was finally written down by the Valabhi council under the chairmanship of Devarddhigani kşamāśramana in the fifth century A.D. According to the Digambaras, the ancient Āgamas are now lost and none of the works composed before the eighth century A.D. makes a reference to the attendant śäsana-yaksa pairs.
The Tiloyapannatti, supposed to have been composed by Yativrşabha who flourished sometime in the fist century A.D. or a little later, is a work on Jaina cosmography 60 and gives a list of the twenty-four yakşas and yaksinis according to the Digambara tradition. But the printed text of the Tiloyapannatti seems to have been a revised and enlarged edition of an earlier (now lost) Tiloyapannatti sutra composed by Yativrşabha. Virasena, the author of the Dhavala and the Jayadhavala refers to a Tiloyapannatti sutra in a passage which is also found in the printed text of the Tiloyapannatti.61 Hence both the author of the extant Tiloyapanyatti and Virasena had another text of the Tiloyapannatti before them. Besides internal evidence also points to the conclusion that the modern text of this work was prepared sometime after the reign of Kalki and his son whose rule is said to have ended in the year 1002 after Mahavira. Again. the text itself pays homage to Yativsşabha in one verse at the end, 62 and in another invokes benediction for a certain Balacandra Saiddhantika.63 Two Balacandras are known to us from the inscriptions at Śravana Belagola both of whom cannot be placed earlier than the eighth century A.D.64 Hence it is reasonable to conclude that the extant copy of the Tiloya pannatti is not the original work of the ancient writer Yativrsabha but is a revised and enlarged copy of the original Tiloyapannatti sutra referred to by Virasena in the eighth century A.D.
The Trilokasära of Nemicandra who was a contemporary of the famous Càmundariya is supposed to have been based on the Tiloyapannatti. 65 We do not know whether it was based on the extant copy
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