Maṇibhadra (Sanskrit: ) is one of the major . He was a popular deity in ancient India.
Iconography
Several well known images of yaksha Manibhadra have been found.
[Yaksha cult and iconography, Ram Nath Misra,
Munshiram Manoharlal, 1981] The two oldest known image are:
Yaksha Manibhadra from Parkham
Yaksha Manibhadra coming from Parkham near
Mathura, datable to period 200 BCE – 50 BC
[Costumes & Ornaments As Depicted in the Early Sculpture of Gwalior Museum By Sulochana Ayyar, Mittal Publications, Dec 1, 1987, p. 29] This Yaksha figure has been dated by Ananda Coomaraswamy to be not later than 500 BCE. as it bears inscription referring to Kunika Ajatashatru who died in 618 BCE (Pg.17, Introduction to Indian Art).
The statue is 2.59 meters high. On stylistic grounds and
palaeography analysis of the inscription, the statue is datable to the middle of the 2nd century BCE.
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.
[ "A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12 the century" by Upinder Singh p.365] 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.
[ Bharut Yavana (John Boardman, "The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity", Princeton University Press, 1993, p.112.)]
Yaksha Manibhadra from Padmavati Pawaya
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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 Empire 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.[Of Art, Central Banks, and Philistines, RBI History Project, http://www.rbi.org.in/History/Mis_Ane_OfArtCentralBankers.html ]
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.
[Ramayana: King Rama's Way, William Buck, Barend A. Van Nooten, Shirley Triest, University of California Press, Nov 1, 2000, p. 32–33] In the
Mahabharata, Manibhadra is mentioned along with
Kubera as a chief of the yakshas.
Arjuna is stated to have worshipped him.
[Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide, Roshen Dalal, Penguin Books India, Oct 5, 2011, p. 240] The
Bhagavata Purana narrates a story about the brothers. Once, Manibhadra and Nalakuvara were playing with their respective wives or
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.
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.
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.
[ THE DHĀRANI OF THE EXALTED MANIBHADRA , Translated from Tibetan by Erick Tsiknopoulos]
Jainism
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.
["Symbols, Ceremonies and Practices" by Pramodaben Chitrabhanu] 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 Vir 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 district) and Magarwada (Banaskantha). Manibhadra Yaksha (or Vira) is a popular demigod among the Jains in Gujarat.[Yakshraj Shree Manibhadradev, Nandlal B Devluk, Arihant Prakashan, 1997] His image can take many forms, including unshaped rocks, however in the most common representation, he is shown with a multi-tusked elephant Airavata.
See also
- Sources
