<img src='http://www.britishmuseum.org/images/ps270899_l.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
(1)OM srimad-bhoja-nareMdra-chaMdra-nagarI-vidyAdharI-dharmadhIH soShA nAma sabhAShaNA khalu sukha-prasthApyatA
(2)yApsarAH | vAgdevIM prathamaM vidhAya jananI pashchAj-jinAnAM-trayIM ambA nitya-phalAdikAM vararuchi mUrttim shubhA ni
(3)-rmANe|| iti shubham || sUtradhAra sahira-suta-maNathaleNa ghaTitaM || vij~nAnika shivadevena likhitaM iti ||
(4)samvat 1091 ||
Above is the transliteration of the 4 lines inscribed in devanAgarI script on the base of the famed pratimA from bhojadeva's city. These four lines would mean something like this:
OM! In the city of the Moon-like Emperor bhoja is being commissioned very delightedly by that apsarA named soShA, who is learned in the vidyA-s, has a mind firmly set in dharma, and who is good in speech:
First accomplishing the Mother Goddess of Voice (Saraswati), and then the three jina-s, is being made this way the mUrti of the Mother, the giver of choicest and everlasting boons. all auspicious. executed by maNathala, the son of sahira the carpenter. this written by knower of sciences shivadeva.
saMvat 1091 vikramI (->1034 AD)
The mUrti of mother vAgdevI in standing posture with four arms (now only two left) is about 1.2 m tall, and is made of coarse white marble. She was worshipped in the capital of rAjA bhoja, the famed dhArA nagarI (modern town of dhAr in madhya pradesh) up until year 1880, when mlechCha-s decided to uproot her, smuggle her, and place in the British Museum of London as an exhibit.
Originally she would have been chaturbhujI, but two arms are now broken. In the remaining two she holds an aMkusha and a noose. She has a beautiful and tall crown in karaNDa style, and her tall hair are done in a bun on a side. Below her is the high pedestal base on which the above four devanAgarI lines are inscribed, and is shown a figure of a lady paying her tribute to the Goddess - probably representing the lady who commissioned the construction of the mUrti. (She is probably being referred to as apsarA, but must have been either a lady of royal family or a rich merchant lady of jaina bent. I think the latter, also because of the reference to the jina-s).
I was very unlucky as I could not have her darshan. First time around when I went, obviousely I was not looking for her particularly, but could have missed her because according to the British Museum, it is not a pratimA of vAgdevI, but that of a jaina yakShiNI ambikA. But the second time around when I did know what I wanted to see, I really ran out of luck, as these mlechCha-s have deported her to another mlechCha country on "Loan" for a year. She is being "exhibited" at a museum in spain these days it seems. But some helpful mlechCha-s at the BML would e-mail me the images hopefully, and when I get those I shall post these here. Posted here are some images from the Museum's database.
For future refernce if someone interested to visit. She is supposed to be out in the walking alleys in the "South Asia" section on the ground floor, Room G33. ID: 1880.19; PRN: PRI-1300.
Now, another mUrti, this one certainly of vAgdevI, and contemporaneous of the above one, but mentioned here to be from western India, probably mAlwA. She is also in the same material and similar style, although shorter in height and has tIrthaMkara-s on the periphery:
<img src='http://www.britishmuseum.org/images/ps185355_l.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
And then there is other Saraswati pratimA, of a very similar style, but much larger in size and dated as per the exhibit records to 5-6th century rajasthan:
<img src='http://inlinethumb41.webshots.com/40104/2625709610100818794S500x500Q85.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
As to the first one, Kirit Mankodi has done some work to explore whether it is yakShI ambikA or vAgdevI herself in a 1981 paper: 'A Paramara Sculpture in the British Museum: Vagdevi or Yakshi Ambika'. I don't have access to it.
Also Read the following museum resources:
1. "yakShI ambikA" (or Saraswati)
2. Saraswati
(1)OM srimad-bhoja-nareMdra-chaMdra-nagarI-vidyAdharI-dharmadhIH soShA nAma sabhAShaNA khalu sukha-prasthApyatA
(2)yApsarAH | vAgdevIM prathamaM vidhAya jananI pashchAj-jinAnAM-trayIM ambA nitya-phalAdikAM vararuchi mUrttim shubhA ni
(3)-rmANe|| iti shubham || sUtradhAra sahira-suta-maNathaleNa ghaTitaM || vij~nAnika shivadevena likhitaM iti ||
(4)samvat 1091 ||
Above is the transliteration of the 4 lines inscribed in devanAgarI script on the base of the famed pratimA from bhojadeva's city. These four lines would mean something like this:
OM! In the city of the Moon-like Emperor bhoja is being commissioned very delightedly by that apsarA named soShA, who is learned in the vidyA-s, has a mind firmly set in dharma, and who is good in speech:
First accomplishing the Mother Goddess of Voice (Saraswati), and then the three jina-s, is being made this way the mUrti of the Mother, the giver of choicest and everlasting boons. all auspicious. executed by maNathala, the son of sahira the carpenter. this written by knower of sciences shivadeva.
saMvat 1091 vikramI (->1034 AD)
The mUrti of mother vAgdevI in standing posture with four arms (now only two left) is about 1.2 m tall, and is made of coarse white marble. She was worshipped in the capital of rAjA bhoja, the famed dhArA nagarI (modern town of dhAr in madhya pradesh) up until year 1880, when mlechCha-s decided to uproot her, smuggle her, and place in the British Museum of London as an exhibit.
Originally she would have been chaturbhujI, but two arms are now broken. In the remaining two she holds an aMkusha and a noose. She has a beautiful and tall crown in karaNDa style, and her tall hair are done in a bun on a side. Below her is the high pedestal base on which the above four devanAgarI lines are inscribed, and is shown a figure of a lady paying her tribute to the Goddess - probably representing the lady who commissioned the construction of the mUrti. (She is probably being referred to as apsarA, but must have been either a lady of royal family or a rich merchant lady of jaina bent. I think the latter, also because of the reference to the jina-s).
I was very unlucky as I could not have her darshan. First time around when I went, obviousely I was not looking for her particularly, but could have missed her because according to the British Museum, it is not a pratimA of vAgdevI, but that of a jaina yakShiNI ambikA. But the second time around when I did know what I wanted to see, I really ran out of luck, as these mlechCha-s have deported her to another mlechCha country on "Loan" for a year. She is being "exhibited" at a museum in spain these days it seems. But some helpful mlechCha-s at the BML would e-mail me the images hopefully, and when I get those I shall post these here. Posted here are some images from the Museum's database.
For future refernce if someone interested to visit. She is supposed to be out in the walking alleys in the "South Asia" section on the ground floor, Room G33. ID: 1880.19; PRN: PRI-1300.
Now, another mUrti, this one certainly of vAgdevI, and contemporaneous of the above one, but mentioned here to be from western India, probably mAlwA. She is also in the same material and similar style, although shorter in height and has tIrthaMkara-s on the periphery:
<img src='http://www.britishmuseum.org/images/ps185355_l.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
And then there is other Saraswati pratimA, of a very similar style, but much larger in size and dated as per the exhibit records to 5-6th century rajasthan:
<img src='http://inlinethumb41.webshots.com/40104/2625709610100818794S500x500Q85.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
As to the first one, Kirit Mankodi has done some work to explore whether it is yakShI ambikA or vAgdevI herself in a 1981 paper: 'A Paramara Sculpture in the British Museum: Vagdevi or Yakshi Ambika'. I don't have access to it.
Also Read the following museum resources:
1. "yakShI ambikA" (or Saraswati)
2. Saraswati