Skip to main content

Featured Post

Odisha Part 2 - Puri: The Experience of Jagannath

The temple of Jagannath at Puri is one of the four most important temples across India. Sometimes called the Char Dham – Badrinath in the north, Rameswaram in the South, Dwarka in the west, and Puri in the east – these temples mark four corners of our country, and each of these temples has a connection to Adi Shankara. He is said to have travelled to each of them, thus marking a sacred geography of India, long before the country actually existed. Among these 4 temples, 3 are dedicated to Lord Vishnu, while only Rameswaram is dedicated to Lord Shiva, though the lingam there is said to have been installed by Rama. Further, Shankara set up Mutts at 3 of these sites (or very close to these sites, like at Badrinath, where the mutt is at Joshimutt), while the mutt in the south is at Sringeri in Karnataka, quite a distance away from Rameswaram. Coming back to the topic, I have visited Rameswaram most often, Badrinath during my childhood, and Dwaraka a few times, but Puri had stayed out of re...
Post a Comment

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! 

Labels:
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. REYZZMarch 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.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for stopping by. Please leave a comment for me so that I will know you have been here....

Popular posts from this blog

Gokarna Part II – The Five Lingams

We continued our Gokarna trip by visiting four other Shiva temples in the vicinity, all connected to the same story of Gokarna. The story of Gokarna mentions the Mahabaleshwara Lingam as the one brought from Kailas by Ravana, and kept at this place on the ground by Ganesha. (See my earlier post- Gokarna – Pilgrimage and Pleasure). However, the story does not end here. It is believed that, in his anger, Ravana flung aside the materials which covered the lingam- the casket, its lid, the string around the lingam, and the cloth covering it. All these items became lingams as soon as they touched the ground. These four lingams, along with the main Mahabaleshwara lingam are collectively called the ‘ Panchalingams’ . These are: Mahabaleshwara – the main lingam Sajjeshwar – the casket carrying the lingam. This temple is about 35 Kms from Karwar, and is a 2 hour drive from Gokarna. Dhareshwar – the string covering the lingam. This temple is on NH17, about 45 Kms south of Gokarna. Gunavanteshw...
10 comments
Read more

Newasa - Encountering an unique form of Vishnu, and Sant Jnaneshwar

The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
4 comments
Read more

Review of Executive Lounges at New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS)

During my recent trip to Uttarakhand , I was faced with a problem I had never encountered before. We were passing through Delhi, but we had hardly any time in the city. On earlier visits when I have had to change trains/flights at Delhi, I have always arrived in the morning and left again at night, visiting relatives in between. This time, I was arriving in the city at night, and leaving again early in the morning. There was hardly any time to visit people. I would only have a couple of hours with them before I’d have to leave again. For the first time, we considered booking a hotel, but there again, we were hesitant about the actual hotels, the costs involved, and the logistics of getting from the airport to the railway station and then back again from the station to the airport.  That’s when we remembered reading something about a corporate-managed lounge at Delhi station. We soon figured out that we could book online and pay by the hour. Besides, we also learnt that there wasn’...
2 comments
Read more