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Four More Popular Yakṣinis
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of Tiloyapanṇatti or its original by Yativṛṣabha and only a detailed comparative study of the two texts can help to decide the issue but unlike the extant Tiloyapanṇatti, the Trilokasara does not give the lists of the attendant yakṣas and yakṣiņis even though it gives the names and other details of the Tirthankaras Cakravartins and others like the Tiloyapanṇatti. Nor does the Trilokasära give the cognizances of the twenty-four Jinas. It is therefore more likely that the Trilokasara of Nemicandra is based on the original Tiloyapanṇatti. The extant Tiloyapanṇatti, even if it be earlier than the Trilokasara, it is not far removed from the latter and Balacandra Saiddhantika referred to in the text itself may either be the author or a contemporary (a teacher or a colleague) of the author of the new, revised and enlarged edition (or portions) of the Tiloyapanṇatti.
This digression was necessary to show that the evidence of the extant Tiloyapanṇatti does not contradict the results arrived at with the help of archaeological evidence. The first reliable reference to the Apraticakra yakṣiņi of the Digambara pantheon is supplied by the Harivamsa of Jinasena I (783 A.D.).66 According to this text, śāsana-devatas of great prowess headed by Apraticakra paid their homage to the Lord Vṛşabha, the dharmacakrin, in the latter's samavasaraṇa.
Later Digambara writer Puspadanta invokes Cakreśvari along with Ambika, Siddhāyika, Gauri and Gandhari of the Jaina pantheon in his Apabhramśa work Mahapurāņa (c. 960 A.D.).67 Puspadanta addresses Cakreśvari as "vigghaviddāvini" or the dispeller of obstacles and 'caru' or the beautiful one.
Amongst the Svetämbaras, the two limits noted above, namely, the fifth century A.D. and the eighth century A.D. may now be checked. It has been noted above that the Jaina Agama texts do not refer to the twenty-four sasana-devatās. Jinadasa Mahattara, the author of Curnis on some of the Agama texts, who completed his Curni on the Nandi-sutra in the Saka year 598 (676 A.D.), does not refer to the yakṣa pairs even when an opportunity is available while dealing with the lives of Mahavira and Rṣabhanatha in his Avasyaka-Cūrṇi.
But Haribhadrasūri, the famous Svetämbara writer, refers to Siddhāyika along with Kali, Rohini and others in his Pancāśaka,68 and to Ambā-Kūṣmaṇḍī as yakși in his Lalitavistarațikā. Muni Jinavijayaji first discussed his date and fixed it as 757-857 v.s. (=700-800 A.D.) but later revised it and finally placed him in Saka years 600-650, i.e. 678-728 A.D. He may have flourished in c. 550-650 A.D.
Sanghadasagani, the author of the Vasudevahindi, part one, who flourished before Jinabhadragani Kṣamāśramaņa, is generally assigned to c. 5th or 6th century A.D. He does not refer to the yakṣa pairs even when opportunities are available in describing lives of some of the Tirthankaras.
Bappabhatti, perhaps a junior contemporary of Haribhadra, who is supposed to have flourished in c. 800-895 v.s., offers invokations to the twenty-four Jinas in his Caturviṁśațikā. This work is made up of a group of 24 hymns, each one assigned to one Tirthankara. In each hymn, the first verse is devoted to one of the twenty-four Jinas, the second to all the Jinas, the third to the Jaina siddhanta or the speech of the Jinas and the fourth to one of the following deities-the Śrutadevată, the sixteen Mahavidyās, the chief queen of Dharana, the Yakṣarāja and the goddess Amba. This Yakṣarāja again is closely related to Kubera, the lord of the yakṣas, so far as the iconography of the two deities is concerned. It has already been shown that the earliest yakṣa pair discovered on Tirthankara-images is that of Yakşeśvara and Ambika who are the only yakşa and yakṣiņi invoked by Bappabhat. It would, therefore, be reasonable to conclude that the sets of sasana-devatãs were a comparatively recent growth if not altogether unknown in the age of Bappabhatti and that the author possibly followed an older practice of invoking deities in such hymns.
Considering all these evidences, both literary and archaeological, available in the traditions of both the Jaina sects, it will be reasonable to conclude that the sets of the twenty-four yakṣas and yakşiņis were introduced sometime after the seventh century A.D. but before the end of the eighth century and probably in the first half of it. But their forms were possibly different from what Hemacandra and Asadhara describe.
Since the Cakresvari figures both as the yakṣini and the vidyadevi in the Svetambara pantheon, it remains to be seen whether the Apraticakra invoked by Bappabhatti was the yakşini or the vidyadevi. Firstly, Bappabhatti invokes her in the group of verses assigned to Suparśvanatha and not Adinātha.
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