Yaksha

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Yakṣha (Sanskrit यक्ष) or Yakkha (Pāli यक्ष) is the name of a broad class of nature-spirits or minor deities who appear in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist mythology. The feminine form of the word is yakṣī or yakṣiṇī (Pāli: yakkhī or yakkhinī).

Contents 1 General character 2 Yakshas in Mahabharata 3 Yakṣas in Buddhism 4 Yaksha in Jainism 5 Yaksha in popular culture 6 References

[edit] General character

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.

[edit] Yakshas in Mahabharata

See also:- Yaksha Kingdom

The banks of river Narmada is described as the birth place of Yaksha king Kuvera (Vaisravana), where his father Visravas, who was a sage, lived. It is also a territory of Gandharvas. (Mahabharata: 3,89). Gokarna (Gokarn, 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) This probably could be the source of Yakshagana, a dance-form practiced in Karnataka and northern Kerala.

[edit] Yakṣas in Buddhism

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)

[edit] Yaksha in Jainism

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.

[edit] Yaksha in popular culture

• Yaksha is the name of the original vampire in The Last Vampire series by Christopher Pike, who used names from the Hindu pantheon for nearly all of the main characters.

• YASHA is a Japanese television series in 11 episodes about a manmade "A80" virus that threatens the elderly population of Japan.

• InuYasha is a manga and anime in which Yakshas frequently appear.

[edit] References

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

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