Elements of Hindu Iconography v1.c7.97

v1.c7.97

It is an interesting phenomenon to note that there are vicissitudes in what may be called the fortune of images as objects of worship. As time passes on certain images somehow cease to be popular and their worship is eventually discarded. Similarly, the contrary process also takes place and images unknown to religious fame become quite famous. New images are often set up, and in time they too become popular and famous. The three important goddess-images of earlier times (from the 5th to the 9th Century A.D.) are seen to be those of Śrī, Durgā and Jyeṣṭhā. Of these the two first are still popular; but the last one is almost completely forgotten as an object of worship. That Jyeṣṭhā was once an important goddess is evidenced by the fact that in the *Bōdhayana-grihya-sūtras* a whole chapter is devoted to the description of the worship of this goddess, and that the Śrīvaishṇava Saint, Toṇḍar-aḍippoḍi, complains in one of his Tamil hymns that people were in his days wasting their veneration upon Jyeṣṭhādēvi, ignoring the Supreme God Viṣṇu, the greatest giver of all good gifts. The Jyeṣṭhādēvi group of three figures—a large female figure in the middle with a