Yakshas and Nature Spirits

The yakshas and yakshis of Indian folk tradition are among the oldest of the great classes of Indian nature-spirits. They appear in the Rigveda, they are named in the Upanishads, they are honoured in the Puranas, and they are vividly present in the early Buddhist and Jain literatures. The yakshas are, in their older form, the guardians of treasure hidden in the earth; the yakshis are the more dangerous of the pair, the water and forest spirits who seduce the unwary traveller and whose presence is felt at the edge of the village, at the foot of the banyan tree, and in the pool under the cliff. The yakshas and yakshis are still honoured in the villages of South India and Sri Lanka, and the early Buddhist yakshi statues are some of the most striking pieces of Indian art.

The Yaksha in the Sanskrit Tradition

The Rigvedic references to the yakshas are few and brief, but they establish the older sense. The yakshas are a class of demons who, in the older Vedic ritual, are propitiated along with the raksasas and the other hostile beings. The later Sanskrit tradition, however, treats the yakshas more generously. The yakshas are the servants of Kubera, the god of wealth, and they live in the deep places of the earth, in the roots of the banyan tree, in the clefts of the mountain, and in the caves of the forest.

The male yakshas are, on the whole, simple and good-natured. They are depicted as short, broad, and powerful figures, often with a smiling face, with their right hand on their hip, and with a slight paunch. The yaksha of the Bharhut, Bodh Gaya, and Mathura reliefs is one of the most familiar of the early Indian art types. The yakshas are also honoured in the village. The yaksha shrine of the South Indian village, often no more than a small stone smeared with vermilion and surrounded by a low wall, is a common feature of the Tamil and Telugu countryside.

Kubera, King of the Yakshas

The king of the yakshas is Kubera, the god of wealth, and he is one of the more interesting of the older Hindu deities. He is said to be the son of the sage Vishravas and the grandson of the sage Pulastya; he was the ruler of Lanka before Ravana deposed him, and he is the lord of the yakshas, the gandharvas, and the kinnaras. The Mahabharata and the Ramayana both treat Kubera as an important figure. In the Ramayana, Kubera is the rightful king of Lanka and the half-brother of Ravana, who drives him out.

Kubera’s iconography is fixed. He is shown as a short, broad, well-fed figure, often with a slight paunch, with a small crown, with a small bag of coins, and with a yaksha attendant. He is one of the Lokapalas, the guardians of the directions; he is the guardian of the north. The Chinese god of wealth has a number of similarities to Kubera, and the European gnome and dwarf of folkloric tradition is a much more distant relative.

The Yakshi: The Seductive Nature-Spirit

The female yakshi is, on the whole, a more complicated figure. The yakshi of the older Sanskrit texts is, on one level, a benevolent spirit of the trees and the water, and on another level, a dangerous seductress of the travellers. The yakshi lives in the flowering tree, in the banyan, in the water-lily, in the pool under the cliff, and in the ruined temple. She emerges at night to seduce the traveller; if he refuses her, she may grant him a treasure; if he accepts her, she may keep him for herself.

The yakshi of the Mahavamsa, the great chronicle of Sri Lanka, is a famous example. The yakshi of the Vettah legend, who lived in a tree at the gate of the city of Kotivana and who ate every passer-by, is another. The yakshi of the Jataka tales, the earlier stories of the Buddha, are common: a yakshi of the forest seduces the travellers and is brought to her senses by the wisdom of the Buddha.

The yakshi is a figure of considerable artistic importance. The yakshi statues of Sanchi, Bharhut, and Bodh Gaya, from the second and first centuries BCE, are some of the most striking pieces of early Indian art. The most famous single piece is the yakshi of Sanchi, sometimes called the Sanchi yakshi, who stands in the bracket figure on the torana of the great stupa, holding a mango branch. The Sanchi yakshi is a piece of folk art that has entered the international art-historical canon.

The Yaksha and Yakshi in Buddhist and Jain Texts

The yakshas and yakshis are major figures in the early Buddhist and Jain literatures. The yakshas of the older Pali texts are a class of beings who live in the air, in the water, in the trees, and in the earth. The Buddhist texts record the conversion of a number of yakshas to the Buddhist path, the most famous being the yaksha Alavaka, who was converted by the Buddha himself.

The great stupas of Bharhut, Sanchi, and Bodh Gaya are decorated with panels of yaksha figures, who stand at the gates of the stupas, at the corners of the railings, and in the medallions of the crossbars. The yaksha of the gate is a familiar figure in the early Buddhist art of India, and the yaksha and yakshi are the most important of the older Indian folkloric figures to have been taken up into the early Buddhist iconography.

The Jain tradition has its own set of yakshas and yakshis. The yaksha Ambika, the yakshini of the Jain temple, is the yakshi who is the mother of the first Tirthankara, Rishabhanatha. The Ambika of the Jain tradition is one of the most venerable of the yakshis, and her shrine is honoured in the Jain temples of western India.

The Yakshi in the Vettah Legend

The Vettah legend, the story of the yakshi of Vettah, is one of the most famous of the South Indian folk-tales, and it is the basis of the vetala stories of the wider Indian folk tradition. The legend is a Tamil folk version of a story that is found in the older Sanskrit Buddhist and Jain texts. According to the legend, a yakshi lived in a tree at the gate of the city of Kotivana, and she was a beautiful woman who emerged at night to ask the travellers a question. Whoever answered the question correctly was allowed to pass; whoever answered it incorrectly was eaten by the yakshi.

The yakshi of the Vettah legend is the prototype of the vetala of the later Sanskrit tradition. The vetala is the spirit that inhabits and animates a dead body, the sardonic figure of the Baital Pachisi, the “Twenty-five Tales of the Vampire.” The South Indian yakshi and the Sanskrit vetala are part of the same family of Indian folkloric beings.

The Survival of the Yakshas in Modern South India

The yakshas and yakshis of the older Indian folk religion are not dead. The South Indian village has a number of yakshas and yakshis, and the cult of the yaksha is a major part of the Tamil and Telugu folk religion. The yaksha shrine of the South Indian village is one of the most ancient pieces of the Tamil and Telugu countryside, and the annual festival of the yaksha is one of the social events of the year.

The Sri Lankan yakshas are also a major part of the Sri Lankan folk religion. The yakshas of the Mahavamsa, the great chronicle of Sri Lanka, are a major element of the Sri Lankan folk religion, and the yakshas of the Sinhalese folk religion are a major part of the Sri Lankan folk culture. The yakshas of the Sri Lankan folk religion are, in particular, the guardians of the buried treasure and the protectors of the village boundary.

The wider kinship of the Indian yaksha with the Chinese earth god, the Japanese yōkai of the forest and mountain, and the Slavic leshy of the Russian forest is a long-standing subject of comparative folklore. The yaksha, the huli jing, the leshy, the Norse troll, and the Slavic leshy are all part of the same broad Eurasian tradition of the local nature-spirit. The oral storytelling page is a useful starting point for the wider discussion.

Sources and Further Reading

Sukumar, A. C. The Sun and the Serpent: A Study of the Yakkhas in the Literature and Art of Ancient India. K. B. Publication, 1986.
Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. The Dance of Shiva: Fourteen Indian Essays. Reprint. New York: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1998.
Misra, R. N. Yaksha Cult and Iconography. D. K. Printworld, 2004.
Kramrisch, Stella. The Presence of Siva. Princeton University Press, 1981.