________________
Parents of the Tirthankaras
211
sculptures as yet unidentified. Here we generally see a male and a female dressed in princely attire and sitting under a tree with a child on the woman's lap. In all such cases, there is invariably a Jina figure seated on the top of the tree (PL 11c).12 Sometimes both the male and the female hold a child each. 13 In some cases the male holds a lotus or a citron in one of his hands (Pl. 12a). Below the princely pair, in a lower panel, are found several seated or standing figures (Pls. 11e, 12a), and in some cases figures riding on horses are also seen (Pl. 12b). 14 Again, in some sculptures (Pl. 13a), a group of children are shown near the feet of the male and the female. Sometimes, a small dwarfish figure is seen climbing the stem of a tree just above and in a sculpture in the Deogarh fort, a similar figure is represented on the branch of a tree.
In this connection, two sculptures from Khajuraho deserve special mention. In one (Pl. 12a) a small figure of a bull is placed between the pair, near their legs. In another (Pl. 13b), at the two ends on the base are representations of a yaksha and yakshi. Again, the chouri-bearers to the right and the left of the male and the female in the same sculpture may be noted.
Such representations are known to occur in old Digambara shrines and other Jaina sites in former Gwalior State, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. A few are also known from Bengal. They seem to have gradually become less popular in the later Medieval and Muslim periods while older sites like Khajuraho, Deogarh and Budhi Chanderi abound in such representation.
Now the presence of a yaksha and a yakshî, as subordinate figures (Pl. 13b), as also of fly-whisk bearers and the bull cognizance demonstrates that these sculptures cannot represent the yaksha and yakshi of a Tîrthankara. Besides there are different kinds of trees in different sculptures which suggests that the pairs are probably associated with different Tirthankaras. The presence of a child on the lap of the mother is of the utmost importance, for it finally establishes the identification of the pair as representing the mother and the father of the Tirthankaras. 15 Moreover, both the male and the female are dressed in regal attire in all sculptures, and the definite evidence of a similar tradition amongst the Svetambaras (in c. 11th-12th century) as demonstrated by the
