Sambodhi 1973 Vol 02

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 10

Maruti Nandan Prasad Tiwari
together with the Taksi Ambika forms the earliest Yakşa-Yakşi pair in the series of the 24 raksa-raksi pairs conceived by the Jainas.). The adjoining ceiling of the Mukhamanda pa shows the figures of the four most favoured goddesses of the Jaina pantheon; they are Cakreśvarı, Saravati, Rohiņi and Vairotya riding respectively over garuda, swan, cow and snake, On two sides of the staircases are also depicted figures of Brahmaganti Yakşa (bearded, bearing padma and chatran, padma in two upper hands with elephant as mount) and Sarvānubhati rakṣa (carrying fruit, goad, noose and fruit in four hands and riding an elephant).
Sixteen cells carved in the corridor on three sides contain Jina figures, each with a goddess (either carrying lotuses or lotus and pustaka in two upper hands) rendered in the middle of the throne on front, and the raksa Sarvānubhūti (with goad, noose, mudra, purse; elephent vāhana) and the Yaksi Ambika (2-armed and 4-armed; - invariably evincing amralumbi and child scated in lap in two hands-with a lion as mount), occupying the two recessed corners of the throne. The Jina figures are flanked either by two standing Camaradharas or by two standing Sinas, the latter generally being shaded by szake canopy. The figures of the Malanayaka are lost in all the cases. Two Jina figures installed respectively in the Cell Nos. 1 and 7 are indentified with Jida Santinatha, on the strength of the pedestal inscriptions mentioning the name of the Jina. In the sanctum is installed a small image of Santinatha. In a small cell on east-south corner is carved a huge Samavasarana (Congregation hall where every Jina delivers bis first discourse after obtaining omniscience) of some Jina with three successive fortification walls carved below and exhibiting the figures of dvarapalas, animals and human beings. The above Samavasarana is inscribed in Samvat 1266 (AD 1209)
The most important of all the representations (See fig. 1) are the bayceilings, attached to the Rangamandapa on east and west, wbich contain, besides other significant renderings, the representations of events in the lives of the Jinas. The ceilings representing the pafica-kalyanakas (Chyarana, Janma, Dikşa, Jnana, Nirvana) from the lives of Rşabhanātha (together with the sense of fight between Bharata and Bahubali and also the figures of the Yakşa Gomukha and the rakst Cakreśvari carved in the centre), Neminatha (Yakşı Ambika also carved on one side), Mahavira (with the figures of rakṣa and rakst), and Santinātba (comprising a scene from his previous life as king Megbamalın when he weighed his body against pigeon to save latter's life) on West; and Pārsvanatha (In the middle rectangle are shown in two rows twenty-four pairs, each representing seated figures of a male and a female, the latter supporting a child seated in lap. It is undoubtedly the representation of the respective parents of the twenty-four