Article: Ambikā or Kuṣmāṇḍinī

Ambikā figure in Ellora
Image by Y. Shishido © CC BY-SA 3.0

Among the earliest images of Ambikā are Akota bronzes from the late sixth century but these are rare. The two-armed goddess is the standard from the eighth to the 12th centuries whereas the four-armed or multi-armed forms become more common until the 16th century (Tiwari 1989: 26ff.)

Numerous images of Ambikā are available as independent sculptures or in temples of both Śvetāmbaras and Digambaras, all over India. Among the most famous ones are the figures in:

• the Ellora Caves 32 and 33, carved in the ninth century
• the Gujarati temples of Kumbharia, dated to 1062 CE
• the temples of Mount Abu in Rajasthan and Taranga in Gujarat, which both date from the 12th century
• Madhya Pradesh, especially in well-known Jain sites such as Deogarh (Bruhn 1969: 77ff.), Khajuraho, Canderi and Vidisha, which date back to the ninth to tenth centuries.

Plenty of images of Ambikā created from the ninth century onwards survive in Bihar, Bengal, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Karnatak.

A fierce form of Ambikā is also worshipped in Tantric rites.

The 14th-century Śvetāmbara author Jinaprabha-sūri refers to images of Ambikā at several Jain holy places in northern and western India. He also states that Ambikā was the guardian deity of Mathurā. Figures of the goddess from the eighth to ninth century are available (Tiwari and Sinha 2011: 108).

Image of Ambikā
Image by Sailko © CC BY-SA 3.0

As a favourite Jain goddess, Ambikā has numerous temples dedicated to her. Tiwari gives some examples (1989: 145–146) of the many found throughout India.

One temple to Ambikā was constructed in the tenth to 11th century near Thān in Saurashtra, Gujarat.

An image of Ambikā in the Allahabad Museum in Uttar Pradesh is supposed to have been originally installed in the cella of the Patiān-dāi temple in the Satna district of Madhya Pradesh.

In south India too, there are many independent shrines dedicated to Ambikā. An example is the one to the south of the Vardhamāna temple at Tirupparuttikkunram in Tamil Nadu.

Lord Nemi and attendants
Image by Wellcome Trust Library © Wellcome Library, London

There is a privileged association between this goddess and the holy place of Mount Girnar, in Gujarat. Ambikā is the yakṣī of the 22nd Jina, Neminātha or Lord Nemi, who is closely connected to this place because it is where he reached final liberation from the cycle of rebirths.

The Digambara temple to Kūṣmāṇḍinī at Mount Girnar dates back to the mid-eighth century CE. Textual evidence from the 14th century testifies to pilgrimages that various Jain dignitaries made to the temple on the mountaintop, and enables phases in the temple‘s development and history to be traced.

The 14th-century account of Ambikā’s legend by Jinaprabha-sūri, a Śvetāmbara monk, shows that her presence and cult at Girnar, in association with Nemi, was acknowledged beyond sectarian divisions. In this piece the author calls the goddess both Ambiā – Prakrit for Ambikā – and Kohaṇḍidevi – Prakrit for Kūṣmāṇḍinī – using both forms of her name. He clearly states that she resides at the top of the hill, as the śāsana-devatā of Nemi.

Sarvānubhūti and Kūṣmāṇḍinī
Image by Nalini Balbir © Nalini Balbir

In Karnatak, Ambikā is mostly known under the name Kūṣmāṇḍinī. There is evidence of her status as an independent deity in this region in the seventh century. She is the guardian deity of Shravana Belgola, the Digambara centre of pilgrimage.

The reasons for her connection with this holy place are not clear. For example, there is no temple in Shravana Belgola dedicated to Neminātha or Lord Nemi, the Jina with whom she is associated.

There is no mythic or iconographic connection between her and Bāhubali [the Jain saint closely associated with the site]. Her role as guardian of the shrine, therefore, either precedes the consecration of the Bāhubali icon in 981 A.D., or else further shows how the cults of the Jain goddesses in Karnataka are only loosely tied to those of the Jinas

Cort 2010: 348

There are several figures of Kūṣmāṇḍinī at Shravana Belgola, namely those in:

• a cell in the temple to the eighth Jina, Candraprabha, in the village, next to the maṭha – seat of the bhaṭṭāraka
• a cell in the pavilion behind the Bāhubali image on the large hill, Vindhya-giri
• the Kattale Basadi, on the smaller hill of Candra-giri.

They are not prominent or large, and Kūṣmāṇḍinī is featured among other deities. But these images are the focus of sustained devotional activity.

Goddess Ambikā
Image by Shanammumbai © CC BY-SA 3.0

A variety of hymns praising Ambikā on her own have been composed in all the languages Jains have used. A noteworthy one is the stavana composed in Sanskrit by the famous Gujarati minister Vastupāla in the 13th century (Nawab 1937/1996 and Jhavery 1944: 328–329).

This deity is said to fulfil all the desires of right-believers and to remove all obstacles.

The 14th-century author Jinaprabha-sūri explains how all sorts of successes and powers will come to Jain believers who worship her using dedicated mantras, yantras and so on. He describes how they will get all sorts of wealth, children, wives and friends, and how they will not come under the power of all sorts of demonic influences. Ambikā, like other yakṣīs or female goddesses, is thus ascribed protective powers.

Ambikā’s connection with motherhood means that worship of her may be performed to request her protection for children. A 14th-century manual on the Jain lay man’s daily conduct, the Ācāradinakara, indicates that ‘a prayer to the goddess Ambikā to guard the child’ (Williams 1963: 279) is part of the birth ceremony. Taking place shortly after a baby is born, this ritual is intended to protect the infant and keep it healthy.

Ambikā
Image by Andreas Praefcke © public domain

Worship of Ambikā is often done the Tantric way – the deity is invoked under several different names and visualised with the help of mantras to meditate.

At the end of the piece he writes to praise Ambikā, Jinaprabha gives a few mantras. He indicates that there are many more which he skips over so as not to make his work too big, but which can be learnt from one’s own teacher. They are worth remembering, he says, to ensure the protection of oneself and of others as well.

Various rites are performed with the help of yantras to appease evil forces and placate the goddess. Some of the names used for her may point to her destructive capacities if she is not properly worshipped. This is a way to gain her good will. Besides propitiatory rites, there are also gruesome ceremonies that suggest the terrifying form of the deity is visualised.

Such mantras and rites are given in hymns or in texts called kalpas, written in Sanskrit. These texts set out rituals and yantras for efficient and successful worship. Such works dedicated to Ambikā are available from the 12th century onwards. Examples are:

• the Ambikāṣṭaka of Ambāprasāda, written around the 12th century CE
• Jineśvara-sūri’s 12th-century Ambikā-devī-stuti
• the Ambikātāḍaṃka, the Ambikātāṭaṃka and the Ambikā-stuti, all written between the 12th and 14th centuries (Tiwari 1989: page 29ff. with original Sanskrit texts on pages 148 to 153; Nawab 1937/1996: 175–181 and Jhavery 1944: 322–330).

When successful in their worship, the devotees have all their desires fulfilled. In the Ambikātāḍaṃka, it is clearly stated that worshipping Ambikā ensures that they will get children.