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Yaksini of the Twenty-Fourth Jina
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fruit in her right hand while the left hand rests on her lap. The goddess is shown sitting in the lalita-asana. P. B. Desai identifies her as Siddhâyikâ.
P. B. Desai has also described a rock-cut relief of a goddess riding on a lion found at Settipodava near Kilakkudi, Madurai district. 19 The devi "holds a drawn bow in the right hand and arrwo in the left, the other two hands also bearing weapons. The lion has grappled an elephant ridden by a male warrior with sword and shield in his hands." The goddess is identified by Desai as Siddhayini, "on account of her characteristic association with the lion." He further adds that "the sculpture probably portrays a familiar episode connected with her exploits." Since this "familiar episode" is not described, nor its source referred to, it would be safer to regard this identification as tentative.
Siddhâyikâ (Four-Armed Variety). (Digambara)
A fourd-armed form of the yaksini of Mahavira is obtained in the big bas-relief sculpture of Mahâvîra from the Jaina Cave at Badami. H.D. Sankalia (B.D.C.R.I, March 1940, Fig. 2, p. 161) describes her as carrying in the upper right hand a weapon which cannot be identified while her lower right hand the abhaya mudra and the upper left one carries a weapon with an ovalish hollow head. On the seat is carved in low relief a bird identified by Sankalia as a swan, but it seems to be of doubtful identification.
Sankalia's identification of the symbols deserves correction. The right upper hand clearly shows the goad with the top end of the handle partly broken, the left upper hand holds the noose. The right lower hand, partly mutilated, night have shown the abhaya. The left lower holds the citron or pot. The vahana is not clear. The goddess sits under the shade of a tree, which looks like a mango tree.
The form is unknown to available Digambara texts, but looking to the probable age of the cave, it represents a now lost Jaina tradition in Karnataka. This and some other reliefs in this cave seem to be some what later carvings than the Jaina Cave itself which latter is not much later than the Vaisnava cave near it, containing an inscription of Mangalisa. It may also be remembered that two armed variety according to the canarese dhyana slokas
