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The Elephanta Caves

The Elephanta Caves , located on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri, about 11 Km off the coast of the Gateway of India, Mumbai, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A visit to these caves, excavated probably in the 6 th century CE, is awe-inspiring, and also thought-provoking. Over the years, I have visited the caves a number of times, and also attended a number of talks by experts in the fields of art, history and archaeology on the caves. Together, they help me understand these caves, their art, and the people they were created for, just a little bit better. Every new visit, every new talk, every new article I read about the caves, fleshes out the image of what the island and the caves would have been like, at their peak. I last wrote about the caves on this blog, in 2011, almost exactly 11 years ago. Since then, my understanding of the caves has, I would like to think, marginally improved. Hence this attempt to write a new and updated post, trying to bring to life, the caves of Elephan
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Navaratri Day 3: A Jain Goddess in Ellora

We tend to associate female deities with Hinduism. It was therefore, interesting to see different representations of female goddesses in the Jain caves of Ellora. Ambika is the Goddess of Prosperity. She is the Yakshi or the protector - goddess of the 22nd Teerthankara, Neminath. Here are two of her figures, seen in the caves of Ellora...



Here she is, in Cave 32, represented as mounted on her lion, under a mango tree. She holds a mango and noose in her hand, though neither are clearly visible because of the condition of the figure. Behind her are her two sons -Priyankara and Shubankara. There are two other people by her side, either attendants or those asking for boons... 

We see her again in Cave 33, with almost the same representation, albeit with slight differences... different artist, can we say? 



Isn't it interesting to see how some concepts recur across religions, in spite of apparent differences? 

P.S. She appears in a lot more forms across the caves, but these are the only images I captured which are worth sharing. Looks like another trip to Ellora is called for, with a better camera this time! 

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Location: Ellora Caves, Talyachi Wadi, Maharashtra 431101, India

Comments

  1. AnuSeptember 27, 2014 at 5:44 PM

    Interesting, I always thought Goddesses appeared pretty late in Jain Iconography...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anuradha ShankarSeptember 27, 2014 at 5:54 PM

      I would have thought so too, Anuradha. But, to be honest, at the time I visited Ellora, I had no clue Jainism had goddesses at all! This came as a big surprise.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 28, 2014 at 8:44 AM

    I thought the first one is Indrani w/o Indra. Seems my understanding is incorrect.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Meghana HassanOctober 3, 2014 at 10:54 PM

    Though not as important as God, in jainism we do worship goddess. During navratri we have kumkumaarchan and aarthi on all nine days to goddess..
    Goddess Ambika, yakshi of Neminath bhagwan is well known as Kushmaandini devi..

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownMarch 30, 2017 at 8:33 PM

    Goddesses were always prominent in Jainism
    As yakshinis of tirthankar
    namely Ambika mata
    Chakreshwari Devi
    Padmavati mata
    Saraswati mata
    And many more.

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