________________
Four More Popular Yaksinis
249 for the delight of her son Priyankara seated on her left lap and whose fingers of the right arm are held tight by Subhankara."
It is interesting to note that Ambikā is described as dark-blue in colour. A similar description is found in the Pratisthātilaka of Nemicandra, who flourished in the 15th cent. A.D.92
Several images and paintings of two-armed Ambika, obtained from all over India, in Jaina shrines, manuscripts collections, and in collections of various museums in India and abroad, prove the immense popularity that this goddess enjoyed, next only to the Tirthankaras (Devādhidevas), but perhaps more than any other Jaina deity. Of forms of Ambikā, the two-armed one seems to be the earliest. Even in the two-armed variety there are more than one forms, but the form with the mango-bunch in the right hand and a son held by her left hand, sitting on her left lap (when the devi is shown sitting), seems to be the earliest (see figs. 162, 96, 97).
In Figure 35 is represented the earliest known image of Ambikā, shown as the attendant yakși of a standing Tirthankara93 (the corresponding yakşa bei ng Sarvāṇha yakşa), dedicated by Jinabhadra Vacanácārya, obtained amongst bronzes of the Akota hoard.94 The inscription on the back is engraved in a script of c. 550-600 A.D. This Jinabhadra Vācanācārya is identified with the famous Jinabhadra gani kşamāśramana, the author of Višeşāvaśyaka-Mahābhāşya (quotect bove), who lived in c. 520-623 A.D.95 In this bronze, Ambikä sits in the lalita pose on a big lotus, carrying a mango-bunch in her right hand and holding with her left hand a son sitting on her left lap.
From the same hoard came an ornate bronze figure of Ambikä worshipped as an independent image not accompanying Neminātha figure on a pedestal. The devi wears an elaborate crown, an astamangala-malā, ear-rings, armlets, bracelets, etc. and her eyes are studded with silver. There is a cūdāmani ornament on the crown. The devi holds the amra-lumbi (mango-bunch) and the child with her right and left hands respectively. The image shows the goddess accompanied by both her sons. The goddess sits in lalitásana on a cushion placed on her couchant lion-mount. Script of an inscription on the back and the style of the figures etc. suggest an age not later than c. 600 A.D.
Figure 87 represents a Sat-Tirthika bronze image of Pārsva, dated in Samvat 1055998 A.D., and having the two-armed Sarvānha yaksa on the right end of the pedestal, the corresponding left end being occupied by a figure of two-armed Ambikā of this variety of form. She has only one son with her. The bronze was discovered in the Vasantagadh hoard.97 The same form of Ambikā is seen on a Tri-Tirthika bronze of Pārsvanātha in the Akota hoard.98 Two elaborate Tri-Tirthika bronzes of Pārsvanātha in the Vasantagadh hoard,99 inscribed in samvat 726 and 756, also show Ambika in the same form and with only one child.
Some more images and paintings of this form were published by us in Iconography of the Jaina Goddess Ambika. Journal of the University of Bombay (henceforth referred to as JUB), Vol. IX, part 2 (September 1940), pp. 147-169 and plates, especially see figs. 2 and 3 from Devgadh fort, fig. 4 from Orissa, now in the British Museum, fig. 5 from Vimala vasahi, Abu, fig. 6 bronze from Baroda, fig. 7 bronze in Museum of Saint Xavier's College, Bombay, fig. 8 from Angadi in Karnataka State. Of the above, figs. 2, 3 and 4 show the second son of Ambikä standing near the mango-bunch held by the mother; in fig. 8 the second son rides on the lion pear the right leg of Ambikā, and in fig. 6 behind the right leg of the mother. In fig. 5 from Vimala vasahi. Ambika has only one son. In fig. I in the paper referred to above, a painting of two-armed Ambikā from a palm-leaf manuscript of Jñata sutra and other texts, preserved in Jaina Bhandara at Chani, Gujarat, is shown. Here the devi carries her son with the right hand and holds the amra-lumbi with the left. A small figure of the lion vehicle is seen below the devi's right leg.
In fig. 8 of above paper, the goddess has placed her left hand on the head of her son standing on her left side, while the second son is riding on the lion on the right side of the two-armed standing Ambika from Angadi, Karnataka. The devi holds a mango-bunch in her right hand.
A big rock-cut relief panel of Sarvanha yakşa and Ambika yakşi is preserved on a rock at Gwalior, M.P. This is illustrated in Fig. 195 in this book. The right arm of the goddess is mutilated while with her left hand she holds the child in her lap. The second son stands on the right side of the mother. In
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
