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Four More Popular Yaksinis
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standing Ambika of this two-armed variety of from, dating form c. late tenth cent. A.D. The second son is standing near Ambika's right leg. A similar form of standing Ambika is found in the Santinătha temple at Thubon, Guna district, M.P.
Amongst bronzes from Aluara hoard, Bihar, in the Patna Museum, we find a standing Ambika with this variety of form. The second son on the right is mutilated and only his feet remain. Two early mediaeval sculptures of Ambikā from Vaibhara giri, Rajgir show the same iconographic symbols.
But in the Sasana Basti at Sravana Belagola there are two different sculptures of Ambika seated under mango tree with a big foliage overhead and showing the amra-lumbi and the citron in her right and left hands respectively. Some examples of this variety are already noted before. A bronze figure of the goddess with the above symbols, obtained in the Bapatla hoard and preserved in the State Museum, Hyderabad, M.P. shows similar symbols. A beautiful bold relief panel of Ambiká riding on a big lion, from cave 32, Ellora, shows the goddess carrying similar symbols. A fine painting showing two-armed Ambiká of this variety of form is obtained on one of the palm-leaves of the Dhavala-Tika at Mudabidri.
In JAA, I, plate 91 A is illustrated a stone sculpture of two-armed Ambika from Bihar, now in Bejoy Singh Nahar's collection, Calcutta. Here one son stands nerr the lion behind the right leg of Ambika sitting in lalitāsana. The younger son is held with her left hand on the lap while Ambika's right hand shows the varada mudra. A small circular mark on the palm of the right hand may either signify some fruit or may just signify a red kumkum mark which ladies sometimes do in the palms of their hands.
In JAA, I, pl. 91B is published a bronze figure of Ambikä sitting in the lalita pose and holding a child on the lap with her left hand. The second son is not seen. The bronze hails possibly from Bihar and is now preserved in the National Museum, New Delhi. In her right hand Ambika holds what seem to be a few lotus buds. Amango-bunch would generally by shown with the mangoes held down and the twigs connecting them held in the hand. One or more lotus buds can be held upwards with the stalks held by the hand. In this bronze Ambikā seems to have held some lotus buds. The way in which the lotus bud is held upwards is demonstrated by a look at the bronze figure of Jaina Sarasvati now in the British Museum, illustrated in JAA, III, pl. 319B.
That there was a tradition of two-armed Ambikā holding a lotus-bud in one hand (usually the right hand) is demonstrated by a bronze figure of standing Ambika from Jina-Kanchi, illustrated by us in JUB, op. cit., fig. 12. Here Ambika's left hand is hanging without holding anything. Images of this form were first described by T.N. Ramachandran who could not find the relevant dhyāna verse. This form is known as Dharmādevi, the yakşi of Neminātha. An independent shrine is dedicated to her and it stands to the south of the Vardhamana shrine at Tiruparuttikunram. Ramachandran has described the left hand as hanging like the tail of a cow'. A similar figure of the goddess is found in a rock-cut relief at Chitha ral in Kerala state (fig. 204). The symbol in her right hand is not clear. 105 Both the sons stand beside her on the left while a female attendant stands on her right. The relief is assigned to c. 800 A.D. (Sivaramamurti, Panoramu of Jaina Art, figures 95 and 118). With this may also be compared the rockcut relief of Ambikä on a boulder at Kalugumalai (see fig. 83 in this book) dating from c. 8th 9th century A.D. Here the right hand of Ambikā resting on the head of the attendant on the right may be interpreted as hanging. The left hand holds an indistinct object which might have been a lotus-bud.
The imposing later figure of standing Ambika at Tirumalai, Tamil Nadu (Panorama of Jaina Art. fig. 88) shows Ambika holding a lotus-like thing in the right hand while her left hand raised upwards seems to hold some thing or rests on something which cannot be identified. The standing Ambika of Pallava-Chola transition, from Melsittamur, South Arcot district, Tamil Nadu (Panorama of Jaina Art, figs. 46. 47) shows a similar form.
Ambika in Ellora cave 32 (Panorama of Jaina Art, figs. 152A, 153) possibly held the lotus-bud in her right hand while supporting a son on the lap with her left hand. Two śāntara sculptures of Ambika, published by Dhaky from Humca and Kambadahalli, South Karnataka, 108 show Ambikā sitting in the lalitasana and holding the lotus and the child with her right and left hands respectively. The sculptures date from late ninth and early tenth cent. A.D. (Figs. 149 and 150 in this book).
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