Maṇibhadra
God of Property
The "Parkam Yaksha" Manibhadra.
AffiliationManigriva, Kuberaputra, Yakshyuvraj, Yakshupati
AbodeAlkapuri
MantraOm Yashpati Kubera putra Manibhadra Namaha
WeaponSpear
Symbolpower
MountMongoose
Personal information
Parents
SiblingsNalakuvara
ConsortGandhravkumari

Maṇibhadra (Sanskrit: 'as excellent as a jewel') is one of the major yakshas. He was a popular deity in ancient India.

Iconography

Several well known images of yaksha Manibhadra have been found.[1] The two oldest known image are:

Yaksha Manibhadra from Parkham

Yaksha Manibhadra coming from Parkham near Mathura, datable to period 200 BCE – 50 BC[2] The statue is 2.59 meters high. On stylistic grounds and paleographical analysis of the inscription, the statue is datable to the middle of the 2nd century BCE.[3] The inscription says "Made by Gomitaka, a pupil of Kunika. Set up by eight brothers, members of the Manibhadra congregation ("puga")." This inscription thus indicates that the statue represents the Yaksa Manibhadra.[4] According to John Boardman, the hem of the dress is derived from Greek art. Describing a similar statue, John Boardman writes: "It has no local antecedents and looks most like a Greek Late Archaic mannerism". Similar folds can be seen in the Bharhut Yavana.[5]

Yaksha Manibhadra from Padmavati Pawaya

Manibhadra image at Pawaya
Inscription on the base of the image of Manibhadra at Pawaya.
  • Yaksha Manibhadra from Padmavati Pawaya. The inscription under the image mentions a group of Manibhadra worshippers.

Both of them are monumental larger than life sculptures, often dated to Maurya or Shunga period. The Parkham Yaksha was used an inspiration by Ram Kinker Baij to carve the Yaksha image that now stands in front of the Reserve Bank of India in Delhi.[9]

Manibhadra was often shown with a bag of money in his hand.

Hinduism

Manibhadra is stated to be a son of Kubera and his wife, Bhadra. He is described to have a brother named Nalakuvara. In the Ramayana, Manibhadra fought with Ravana to defend Lanka, but failed.[10] In the Mahabharata, Manibhadra is mentioned along with Kubera as a chief of the yakshas. Arjuna is stated to have worshipped him.[11] The Bhagavata Purana narrates a story about the brothers. Once, Manibhadra and Nalakuvara were playing with their respective wives or apsaras in the river Ganges. They were drunk and nude. When the divine sage, Narada, passed by to visit Vishnu, the women covered themselves, but the nude brothers were too intoxicated to see the sage and started to boast about themselves. Narada wanted to teach the brothers a lesson and cursed them to be turned into trees and only to be liberated by Vishnu's avatar. During the Dvapara Yuga, an infant Krishna was tied to a mortar by his mother, Yashoda, as a punishment for eating dirt.[12] Krishna crawled with the mortar, which became stuck between two trees. Krishna, using his divine powers, uprooted the trees, liberating Nalakuvara and Manigriva from their curse.

Other legends

Another figure with the same name is mentioned to be an avatar of Shiva which he called when he was angry and summoned for warfare. Manibhadra decimated the army of Jalandhara along with Virabhadra, another avatar of Shiva.[13] It is possible that the avatar of Shiva and the chief of the yakshas may be the same Manibhadra but there is no confirmation. Manibhadra is also a god of sea-farers especially merchants venturing out in the sea for business in faraway lands.

Buddhism

In Samyukta Nikaya, Manibhadra is said to reside in the Manimala chaitya in Magadha. Yaksha Manibhadra is invoked in The Exalted Manibhadra’s Dhārani.[14]

Jainism

Manibhadra Temple, Magarwada
Manibhadra Temple, Aglod

In Sūryaprajñapti, a Manibhadra chairya in Mithila is mentioned. Yakshas are referred to in the Harivamsa Purana (783 A.D.) of Jinasena made the beginning of this concept.[15] Among them, Manibhadra and Purnabadra yakshas and Bahuputrika yakshini have been the most popular. Manibhadra and Purnabadra yakshas are mentioned a chief of yakshas, Manibhadra of Northern ones and Purnabadra of Southern ones.

Manibhadra still a yaksha worshipped by the Jains, specially those affiliated with the Tapa Gachchha. Three temples are famous for association with Mandibhadra: Ujjain, Aglod (Mehsana) and Magarwada (Banaskantha). Manibhadra Yaksha (or Vira) is a popular demigod among the Jains in Gujarat.[16] His image can take many forms, including unshaped rocks, however in the most common representation, he is shown with a multi-tusked elephant Airavata.[17][18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Yaksha cult and iconography, Ram Nath Misra, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1981
  2. ↑ Costumes & Ornaments As Depicted in the Early Sculpture of Gwalior Museum By Sulochana Ayyar, Mittal Publications, Dec 1, 1987, p. 29
  3. ↑ Luders, Heinrich (1961). Mathura Inscriptions. p. 179.
  4. ↑ "A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12 the century" by Upinder Singh p.365
  5. ↑ Bharut Yavana (John Boardman, "The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity", Princeton University Press, 1993, p.112.)
  6. ↑ Luders, Heinrich (1961). Mathura Inscriptions. p. 179.
  7. ↑ Boardman, John (1993). The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity. Princeton University Press. p. 112. ISBN 0691036802.
  8. ↑ Dated 150 BCE in Fig. 15-17, general comments p.26-27 in Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie (2007). History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE. BRILL. ISBN 9789004155374.
  9. ↑ Of Art, Central Banks, and Philistines, RBI History Project, http://www.rbi.org.in/History/Mis_Ane_OfArtCentralBankers.html Archived 16 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ Ramayana: King Rama's Way, William Buck, Barend A. Van Nooten, Shirley Triest, University of California Press, Nov 1, 2000, p. 32–33
  11. ↑ Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide, Roshen Dalal, Penguin Books India, Oct 5, 2011, p. 240
  12. ↑ Prabhupada, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami; Prabhupada, Disciples of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (31 December 1977). Srimad-Bhagavatam, Tenth Canto: The Summum Bonum. The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. ISBN 978-91-7149-643-0.
  13. ↑ "Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic: Part III. The Inferior Deities: Chapter VI. The Asuras".
  14. ↑ THE DHĀRANI OF THE EXALTED MANIBHADRA Archived 2 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Translated from Tibetan by Erick Tsiknopoulos
  15. ↑ "Symbols, Ceremonies and Practices" by Pramodaben Chitrabhanu
  16. ↑ Yakshraj Shree Manibhadradev, Nandlal B Devluk, Arihant Prakashan, 1997
  17. ↑ Kristi L. Wiley (17 June 2009). The A to Z of Jainism. Scarecrow Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-8108-6337-8.
  18. ↑ Shah, U. P. (September–December 1982). "Minor Jaina deities". Journal of the Oriental Institute. Baroda: Oriental Institute, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. XXXII (1–2): 97–98.
Sources
  • Mathew, Ammu (2008). ManoramaTell me why No.32. Monorama Press. ISBN 978-0-9750-4300-4.
  • Hopkins, Edward Washburn (1915). Epic mythology. Strassburg K.J. Trübner. ISBN 0-8426-0560-6.
  • Sutherland, Gail Hinich (1991). The disguises of the demon: the development of the Yakṣa in Hinduism and Buddhism. SUNY Press. ISBN 0-7914-0622-9.
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