Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c11.s2.1.2

c11.s2.1.2

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.