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One who has
man's wings And a woman's also Is himself a womb
of the world Continuously, endlessly giving birth.
- Lao Tzu
lmost all aspects of Jain iconography, art and ritual, in one way or another, are connected with pañca maha kalyåņaka, 'five great events', in the life of every tirtharkara.
Of these, the first is garbha kalyanaka, 'the event of the embryo'. In case of the twenty-fourth tirtharikara Mahåvira, it relates to the transfer of Mahāvīra as embryo from the womb of Brahmāņi Sunandā to a more propitious womb, that of Ksatriyāņi Trišală of the royal family. This was accomplished by Naigameşin, an attendant of Indra; he is a goat-headed, pot-bellied deity, and has a special place in the Svetāmbara tradition of Jainism.
According to the Jain legend, Sakra himself brought the infant tīrthankara to the top of Mount Meru, the mountain of gods, for the divine bath. Joining a host of nymphs, the 'Lord of Celestials' rejoiced and danced Indra and Ajātaśatru, a great ruler on earth and a contemporary of Mahāvīra, waved the cauri before the tirtharkara.
The legend of the transfer of the embryo by Naigameşin is narrated in the context of Mahāvīra. However, it is associated with all other tirtharkaras as well. In turn, this great event, 'the event of the embryo', is ritualistically reenacted on special occasions in the Svetāmbara temples, and is a subject of many paintings.
The importance of birth as an act of new creation, and notion of abundance, wish-fulfilment and fecundity are basic to the Indian concept of a goddess, whether Hindu, Buddhist or Jain, and "accounts for much of the voluptuousness of the female form, both divine and human, in Indian sculpture."
The 'little mother'. Ambika is the most popular of the Jain yakṣis; like the Hindu goddess Durgă, she rides a lion, and is often compared to her. According to a Svetāmbara legend, Ambikā was thrown out of her house by her husband for bringing dishonour to the family by offering to a Jain monk the food cooked for Brahmans. Dejected, she went into a forest and sat under a mango tree with her two sons. The power of her virtue, however, transformed the tree into a kalpavşkşa, 'a wishing tree', giving her and the children all they wished for. A dry tank nearby always overflowed with water whenever she went near it.
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