Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c11.s2.1

Language: English

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The Yaksha problem in Indian religion, literature and art is of dimensions worthy of special attention. Perhaps no other cult is as ancient, as widespread and as deeply ingrained in the lives of the people as the Yaksha cult. Even today each Indian village has a Yaksha shrine under the name of Bīr (गाँव-गाँव को ठाकुर, गाँव-गाँव को बीर), and on enquiry it was found that Yaksha worship under different names is a living cult from Kashmir to the Tamil Land (Viran, Māran, i. e. tutelary deity) and from Assam to Saurāshtra. A Yaksha shrine is in the nature of a low platform on which a conical aniconic image is placed usualy with a niche for lamp. There are four points of distinction between a Śiva Linga and a Yaksha image. Firstly, that there should be a Yaksha shrine in each village; secondly, a Yaksha image is single on its platform called chatvara (Hindi, Chaurā) or sthāna (Hindi, thān) but a Śiva shrine may have other images also. Thirdly, there can be no niche or depression for putting a lamp in a Śiva Linga; and fourthly, the Yaksha image is peaked at the top, while the Śiva Linga is rounded. There is evidence in the Purāṇas to indicate that originally Yaksha cult widely prevailed, but it was supplanted by the Śiva cult.

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According to the Matsya Purāṇa the city was under the chieftainship of Harikeśava Yaksha (still worshipped as Harsū Brahma) who became a worshipper of Śiva and after his conversion, Śiva became the presiding deity of the city and Yakshas were relegated to a subordinate position. Even today there are four Yaksha platforms or shrines in Banaras Hindu University area and in Varāṇasī a number of them, including Lahurā Bīr (the junior Yaksha) and Bullā Bīr (the senior Yaksha; Bullā being a Prakrit form of Sanskrit Vipula) very similar to Chulakokā and Mahākokā Devatās of Bharhut. In medieval India we come across numerous references to a group of fifty-two Bīrs of which several lists are preserved (see my book: "Ancient Indian Folk Cults"). In Gupta art and literature Yaksha worship finds a prominent place being represented in Ajanta and mentioned in the Chaturbhāṇī as Rathyā Yaksha (Yaksha of the street). Kālidāsa has immortalised the Yakshas conceived in a rich semi-mythical background with Rāja-rāja Kubera as their king and Alakā as their city, pointed also to the amity between Śiva and Kubera, the former having an abode in the precincts of the capital. In Kushāṇa art we have hundreds of images at Mathura representing Yakshas and Kubera with his consort, Bhadrā or Hārītī, the auspicious goddess of children, whose worship spread from Gandhāra to Magadha, and who was converted by the Buddha from her nature as a cruel ogress to a benevolent mother.

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In the Śuṅga art the Yaksha deity reigns supreme since at that time the forms of Brāhmanical gods and goddesses and also the Buddha or Tīrthaṅkara images have not been crystallised. It appears as if the monumental Stūpas of Bharhut and Sanchi are dedications of a community devoted to the Yaksha deities both in male and female forms carved on the gateways and the railings. We are fortunate to have labels on some of them, e.g. Kupiro Yakho, Yakhī Sudasanā, Suchilomo Yakho, Supavaso Yakho, and the two devatās, Mahā Kokā and Chula Kokā mentioned above. The higher religion of the Buddha and the popular cult of Yakshas were shaking hands in a strange fraternising spirit and the people offered their homage equally to both of them. This seems to be the meaning of Aśoka's statement that by his forging contact with the people in the countryside and questioning them on matters of religion (jānapadasa janasa dasanam dhama-palipuchhā), the unmingled (lower) gods became mingled with the upper ones (amisā devā husu te dānī misā kaṭa). It was likely at this time that a mass of Yaksha material infiltrated into the Epics. The Rāmāyaṇa mentions Yaksha-hood and immortal life (Yakshatvam amaratvam cha) as synonyms (Kishkindhā, 11.94). In the Mahābhārata Brahmā conferred on Vaiśravaṇa three boons, viz. immortality, lordship of wealth and of sovereignty of the worlds (amaratvam dāne sattvam lokapālatva-meva cha, Āraṇyaka Parva, 258. 15).