Jain Temples of Rajasthan

SR No.: 011011
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sehdav Kumar
Publisher: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Art Abhinav Publications
Total Pages: 225
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 153

mudră. She has a seven-hooded cobra canopy overhead and is attended on both sides by a female caurl-bearer. Above her is a row of gandharvas and vidyadharas. Acchuptă She rides a horse, and holds in her hands a bow, sword, shield and arrow. In the corridor ceiling in the Vimalavasāhi, accompanied on each side by a cauri-bearer, is an image of sixteen-armed vidyādevi Acchuptā sitting in lalitäsana. Her mount is a horse, shown below her left leg. In her right hands she carries a chain, a ring, a goad, a noose, an arrow, vyākhyānamudra, a parasu and a conch. In her left hands she carries a chain, a trumpet, a danda, a bow, a vajra, a pitcher, a club and abhayamudrā. Above the image are vidyadharas showering abhiseka water on the goddess. Mahāmānasi The sixteenth vidyādevi rides a lion and bears in her four hands varada, sword, kamandalū and a lance.
महामानसी धवलवर्णा सिंहवाहनाम्। चतुर्भजां वरदासियुक्तदक्षिणकरां कुण्डिकाफालकयुतवामहस्ताम् ।
-Nirvånakalika With her lion mount, an image of twenty-armed vidyadevi Mahāmānasi, is sitting in lalitásana, in corridor ceiling in the Vimalavasāhi temple. She is flanked on each side by an image of eight-armed divinity. In her right hands, she holds a sword, a lotus, an arrow, a triśüla, a danda, a goad, vyākhyānamudrā, a snake, a club and varadamudra. In her left hands, she has a shield, a club, a bow, a noose, a vajra, abhayamudrā, a conch, a pot, a paraśu and a lotus.
It is not often that all of sixteen vidyādevis are depicted in art in one location. At Vimalavasāhi, on the ceiling of a pillared mandapa, the standing figures of sixteen vidyadevis are represented, each with six arms and other associated attributes. Below these figures are pillars and torana-arches with intricate carving.
In the rangamandapa dome of the Vimalavasāhi and the Lunavasāhi the set of sixteen vidyādevis, with their respective attributes and mounts, is represented as bracket figures standing on vidyadharas.
In addition, in the Vimalavasāhi temple, there are four more sets of sixteen vidyādevis in the corridor ceilings. In two of these sets they are seated in lalităsana and have four arms; in the third set they are represented in standing attitude, and in the fourth set they are in standing attitude but with six arms each. Their mounts are not shown in any of these representations. In another corridor ceiling, eight standing vidyādevis are shown.
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