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CHAPTER III
THE YAKŞINIS
The Yaksiņis as much as the Yaksas constitute a class of deified beings quite peculiar to the Jaina religion. There are reasons for believing that they are not purcly fanciful creations. The Jaina books supply us the clue that they were female attendants of the Tirtharkaras, being the leaders of the women converts. As they, however, appear in the Jaina representations, they are cudowed with semi-divine attributes and symbolism of various kinds. These, in historical analysis, may reveal inixed conceptions, which explain how their well-developed iconography arose. The names and symbols of some of thic Sasana devis, such as, Cakresvari, Nirvāni Devi, Ambika betray unmistakably original ideas of personalities fused with those of older Brāhmānic goddesses. Of the Yakşiņīs a good number passes into an order of Jaina female deities, called the l'idrāderīs or goddesses of learning. These goddesses share in a great measure forms of the Brāhmaṇic fernale deities. All these resemblances prove the fact with greater force how the Yakṣiṇi representations underlic striking conceptions borrowed from Brāhmaṇic pantheon. Additionally too, there are cases in which the Yakşiņīs with their consorts have inore directly evolved their forms out of semi-mythological incidents in which the Jinas were the main actors. Further, it may be said that the Yaksa character of the Yaksiņi's symbolisin and their chief mission as Sāsana-devis (governing goddesses) have been carefully taken into account by the sculptors as they represented them in images.
Cakreivari
The Svetāmbaras and the Digambaras concurrently descrilic her as holding the symbol of disc and riding a Garuda. The Śvetāmbara image has eight hands, which carry Parada Mudrā,
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