Elements of Hindu Iconography v3.c19.185

v3.c19.185

According to the description of Jyēṣṭhādēvī, as given in Sanskrit works, she is a goddess with two arms and two eyes, with big cheeks and large pendulous breasts descending as far as the navel, with a flabby belly, thick thighs, raised nose, hanging lower lip, and is in colour as dark as ink. Her legs have to be hanging down in front of the Bhadrāsana on which she is seated. Her hair is done up in a knot, and on the forehead a tilaka is marked. She wears a makuṭa on her head; in her right hand she holds a nīlōtpala flower, and the other hand rests upon the seat. One authority, however, states that she should carry a nīlōtpala in one hand and keep the other in the abhaya pose. In actual sculptures, she is often seen with the right hand in the abhaya pose and the left hand made to rest upon her thigh (See Pl. CXXI); sometimes in the sculptures the right hand holds the *nīlotpala* flower and the left hand rests upon the seat. (See Pl. CXXII and CXXIII.)