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ART-OBJECTS IN MUSEUMS
[PART X
lotus-halo. An image of the Tirthankara seated in meditation on a lotus and flanked by a cauri-bearer is shown at the top. The base in front bears the name of the goddess as Sulocanã. The image is a sublime product of circa ninth century.
Another contemporary image hailing from the same region and labelled as Dhrti is seated at ease on her mount, probably Garuda, shown in alidha-pose with hands joined near the chest in adoration (plate 316A). She holds in her right hands a bunch of flowers, a rod-like object, a rosary and again a flower, while her left hands carry a few lotuses, a serpent and a battle-axe. Her two lowermost hands, now broken and lost, were probably held in abhaya- and varada-poses. The hair of the goddess is arranged in a big bun decorated with flowers, as also shown in contemporary sculptures from central and eastern India. A female attendant stands in tri-bhanga-pose on either side of the goddess and vind-player is depicted flanking her lotus-halo in a graceful attitude. An image of a Tirthankara with an attendant on his either side is shown in dhyana-mudra at the top in the centre. The image, though now badly damaged, is of much iconographic importance."
A composite image from the same region and of the same date shows a Yakşa and a Yakşi seated side by side in a niche between two decorated pilasters (plate 316B). The figures are two-armed; their right hands, though partly broken, are held in abhaya-mudra, while the left carry a citron (damaged). An interesting feature in this image is that three dwarfs are depicted as supporting the panel having the figures of the semidivine couple. The female musicians playing on vind-like instruments are depicted on either side of the central figure. The top of the main panel has a niche with a seated image of Tirthankara and crowned by the finial of a spire including the ribbed amalaka showing on either side a pair of garland-holding Vidyadharas flying towards it. The base bears a one-line inscription Anantavirya, probably used for the Yakşa figure.
An image of Jaina Yakşi, probably representing Padmavati, holds clockwise the hilt of a sword (damaged), a cobra, a shield and a lotus in her
1 Garuda, when he carries Visnu or Laksmi-Nārāyaṇa, Vaisqavi (one of the Sapta-Matka) and the Jaina Yakşi Cakreśvari is always shown seated in the alidha-pose.
B. N. Sharma, 'Unpublished Pala and Sena sculptures in the National Museum, New Delhi', East and West, XIX, 34, pp. 413-14, figs. 1 and 2.
Stylistically, the two Devi images probably belong to the Sohagpur region in Madhya Pradesh, from where several inscribed images are displayed in the Dhubela Museum. Cf. S.K. Dikshit, A Guide to the State Museum, Dhubela, Nowgong, 1957, fig. XA.
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