The yakshas and yakshis are the working deities of practical Jain religion and their existence is a standing embarrassment to its philosophy. Each Tirthankara is assigned a pair of attendant deities, and they appear at the base of the image; the most prominent — Padmavati, attendant of Parshvanatha; Ambika, of Neminatha; Chakreshvari, of Rishabhanatha; Dharanendra — have accumulated independent cults with their own temples, iconography and specialities. They are heavenly beings, still within the cycle of rebirth, and therefore, unlike the Siddhas, capable of hearing and acting. So people ask them for children, for court cases, for business, for examination results. The iconography is straightforwardly borrowed from Hindu goddess imagery — multiple arms, animal mounts, weapons. Reformist Jains, and the aniconic sects in particular, argue that a religion founded on the futility of petition has reconstructed petition wholesale. Defenders reply that these are not objects of worship but of respect, a distinction that queue lengths at Padmavati shrines do not obviously support.