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Jaina Iconography-A Brief Survey
Harivamsa, Cakresvari was already introduced as the Sāsana-Yaksi of Rsabhanatha. There is no sculpture of this age showing Cakresvari as the attendant Yaksî of Rsabhadeva. Earlier references to Ambika come from the Lalitavistarātikā of Haribhadra Suri. An Amba-Kusmandi Vidya has been referred to by the same writer in his tika on the Avasyakaniryukti, V, 931, (p. 411). In both these cases, however, neither the vahana nor the symbols are described.
But a still earlier reference is from a Ms. of Visesavasyaka-Mahabhasya with Ksamasramana-Mahattariya- tika recently discovered by Agamaprabhakara Muni Shri Punyavijayaji which seems to settle the age of the introduction of Ambika Yaksi. This Ksamasramana-Mahattariya-tika gives the following reference on folio 226:
यस्मिन्मन्त्रदेवता स्त्री सा विद्या अम्बाकूष्माण्डयादिः । Here Amba-Kusmandi is referred to as a Vidya. But since we do not find Amba or Kusmandi in the list of the sixteen chief Vidyas, it is very likely that this refers to the Vidya-Sadhana of the same goddess Ambika which accompanied the different Tirthankaras and which later came to be worshipped as the Sasanadevata of Neminatha.
Thus we obtain both literary and archaeologieal evidence for Ambika, assignable to the sixth century A. D. No earlier evidence is known hitherto. It is also interesting to note that both these evidences are associated with Jinabhadra Gani Ksamasramana We might therefore, safely say that Ambika Yaksi was introduced in Jaina worship sometimes in the sixth century A. D. or at the earliest in c 500 A. D. It is not possible to push back this upper limit of the introduction of Ambika in the present stage of our knowledge, since all Tirthankara sculptures assignable to an age prior to c. 500 A. D. do not show any attendent Yaksa pair nor do we find any loose sculptures of Ambika which can be placed before c. 500 A. D.
But when were the 24 Yaksas and Yaksinis introduced ? The earliest list of these sasa nadevatas is obtained from the Abhidhana-Cintamani of Hemacandra and their iconographic forms are given in the Trisastisaakapuruscaritra of the same writer. The Nirvanakalika of Padalipta, ascribed to the famous Padaliptacharya of c. 2nd century A. D., also gives such lists. As the Pravacanasarodhara-tika (V. S. 1248 ) refers to it, the lower limit for Nirvanakalika is 1191 A. D. The work however seems to have been been composed in the eleventh or twelth century A. D. The colophon shows that the author belonged to the Vidyadhara-kula and the work was composed by Padalipta, grandpupil of Sangamasimha, A Sangamasidhamuni died by fasting on Mt. Satrunjaya and his pupil installed an image of Pundarika Ganadhara in his (eacher's memory in V, S. 1064. A Sangamasimha composed a hymn which referred to the Vimala Vasahi . ANTECATINI Tatar TTTHIERİ UCIET 671031-gatai gifrarni Lalitavistara, p, 60,
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