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Yakṣha (Sanskrit यक्ष) or Yakkha (Pāli यक्ष) is the name of a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, who are caretakers of the natural treasures hidden in the earth and tree roots.^[1] They appear in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist mythology.^[1] The feminine form of the word is yakṣī or yakṣiṇī (Pāli: yakkhī or yakkhinī).^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 General character 2 Yakshas in Mahabharata 3 Yakṣas in Buddhism 3.1 In the Pali Canon 4 Yaksha in Jainism 5 Notes 6 References

In Hindu, Jain and Buddhist mythology, the yakṣa has a dual personality. On the one hand, a yakṣa may be an inoffensive nature-fairy, associated with woods and mountains; but there is a much darker version of the yakṣa, which is a kind of cannibalistic ogre, ghost or demon that haunts the wilderness and waylays and devours travelers, similar to the rakṣasas.

In Kālidāsa's poem Meghadūta, for instance, the yakṣa narrator is a romantic figure, pining with love for his missing beloved. By contrast, in the didactic Hindu dialogue of the Yakṣapraśnāḥ ("questions of the Yakṣa"), a dangerous cannibalistic Yakṣa, the tutelary spirit of a lake, threatens the life of the epic hero Yudhiṣṭhira.

The yakṣas may have originally been the tutelary gods of forests and villages, and were later viewed as the steward deities of the earth and the wealth buried beneath.

In Indian art, male yakṣas are portrayed either as fearsome warriors or as portly, stout and dwarf-like. Female yakṣas, known as yakṣiṇīs, are portrayed as beautiful young women with happy round faces and full breasts and hips.

In the state of Kerala, in South India, Yakshis are depicted as vampire enchantresses.

The banks of river Narmada is described as the birth place of yaksha king Kubera (Vaisravana), where his father Visravas, who was a sage, lived. It is also a territory of Gandharvas. (Mahabharata: 3,89). Gokarna, Karnataka is also mentioned as a place of yakshas and pisachas, and kinnaras and the great nagas, and siddhas and charanas and gandharvas. (3,85)

See also: Yaksha Kingdom

In Buddhist countries yakṣas are known under the following names: Chinese Pinyin: 夜叉 yè chā, Japanese: Yasha (夜叉, Yasha^?), Burmese: ba-lu).

In Buddhist mythology, the yakṣa are the attendants of Vaiśravaṇa, the Guardian of the Northern Quarter, a beneficent god who protects the righteous. The term also refers to the twelve heavenly generals who guard the Buddha of Medicine (Sanskrit: Bhaiṣajya; Tibetan: sangs-rgyas sman-bla; Chinese and Japanese: 藥師如來, 薬師如来)

The Alavaka Sutta (SN 10.12) of the Pali Canon details a story where the Buddha was harassed by a Rakshasa, who asked him to leave and then come back over and over. The Buddha refused to leave, whereby the Rakshasa threatened to harm him if he could not answer his questions. The rest of the sutra concerns the question and answer dialogue, and at the end, the demon is then convinced and becomes a follower of the Buddha.^[2]

23rd Jain tirthankar Parshvanath is always represented with the hood of a snake shading his head. The Yaksha Dharanendra and the Yakshi Padmavati are often shown flanking him.

• Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend (ISBN 0-500-51088-1) by Anna Dhallapiccola
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Yaksha, EBC: Yaksha

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