Yaksha

Remains of the colossal statues of the Parkham Yaksha (150 BCE) and the Mudgarpani ("Mace-holder") Yaksha (100 BCE), Mathura. These colossal statues stand around two metres tall.^[1] The Mudgarpani Yaksha holds a mudgar mace in the right hand, and the left hand used to support a small standing devotee or child joining hands in prayer.^[2]^[3]
Art of Mathura, Mathura Museum

The Yakshas (Sanskrit: यक्ष, IAST: Yakṣa, Pali: Yakkha) are a broad class of nature spirits, usually benevolent, but sometimes mischievous or capricious, connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest, treasure and wilderness.^[4]^[5] They appear in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, as well as ancient and medieval era temples of South Asia and Southeast Asia as guardian deities.^[5]^[6] The feminine form of the word is IAST: Yakṣī^[7] or Yakshini (Sanskrit: यक्षिणी, IAST: Yakṣiṇī; Pali: Yakkhini).^[8]

In Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, the yakṣas have a dual personality. On the one hand, a yakṣa may be an inoffensive nature-fairy, associated with woods and mountains; but there is also a darker version of the yakṣa, which is a kind of (bhuta) that haunts the wilderness and waylays and devours travellers, similar to the rakṣasas.

^ ^a ^b Dated 100 BCE. Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie (2007). History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE – 100 CE. BRILL. p. 368, fig. 88. ISBN 9789004155374.
^ Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie (2007). History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE – 100 CE. BRILL. p. 365, fig. 85. ISBN 9789004155374.
^ Dalal, Roshen (2010). The Religions of India: A Concise Guide to Nine Major Faiths. Penguin Books India. p. 398. ISBN 978-0-14-341517-6.
^ Singh (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India. New Delhi: Pearson Education. p. 430. ISBN 978-81-317-1120-0.
^ ^a ^b Stefon, Matt. "Yaksha | Hindu mythology". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 15 July 2007.
^ Richard John Richards (1995). South-east Asian Ceramics: Thai, Vietnamese, and Khmer: From the Collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia. Oxford University Press. pp. 27, 67. ISBN 978-967-65-3075-2.
^ For यक्षी as the feminine of यक्षः see V. S. Apte, The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary, p. 776.
^ For yakṣiṇī (यक्षिणी) as a regular Sanskrit term for a female yakṣa, and yakṣaṇī as a Buddhist variant, see Franklin Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary, Vol. 2, Motilal Banarsidass, first Ed., 1953, p. 442.

[SRQF88-1] Dated 100 BCE. Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie (2007). History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE – 100 CE. BRILL. p. 368, fig. 88. ISBN 9789004155374.

[2] Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie (2007). History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE – 100 CE. BRILL. p. 365, fig. 85. ISBN 9789004155374.

[3] Dalal, Roshen (2010). The Religions of India: A Concise Guide to Nine Major Faiths. Penguin Books India. p. 398. ISBN 978-0-14-341517-6.

[4] Singh (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India. New Delhi: Pearson Education. p. 430. ISBN 978-81-317-1120-0.

[eb-5] Stefon, Matt. "Yaksha | Hindu mythology". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 15 July 2007.

[6] Richard John Richards (1995). South-east Asian Ceramics: Thai, Vietnamese, and Khmer: From the Collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia. Oxford University Press. pp. 27, 67. ISBN 978-967-65-3075-2.

[7] For यक्षी as the feminine of यक्षः see V. S. Apte, The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary, p. 776.

[8] For yakṣiṇī (यक्षिणी) as a regular Sanskrit term for a female yakṣa, and yakṣaṇī as a Buddhist variant, see Franklin Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary, Vol. 2, Motilal Banarsidass, first Ed., 1953, p. 442.

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