Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c8.s1.10

c8.s1.10

*Yaksha*, ‘a wonderous being’ of colossal size typified in a visible form Brahman himself (*Mahad-Yakshaṃ Bhuvanasya madhye* AV. 10.7.38), taking giant strides in fervour (*Tapas*), on the surface of the waters of creation. He is lofty like a tree on whose branches spreading from the stern sit hosts of Devas. This was a grand conception befitting a Supreme Deity, symbolising the mysterious principle of life and creation. The Yaksha-cult was a folk religion of the widest distribution which has come down from the Ṛigveda to our own times, and was accepted as much by the Buddhist as by the Jainas and the Brāhmaṇas. Indra, Mitra, Varuṇa, Arymā of the Vedas and Buddha and Mahāvīra of later times were compared to a Yaksha and the former even reckoned amongst lists of Yaksha deities. Each village had its Yaksha and an annual festival called *Yaksha maha* was held in their honour. Many Yaksha shrines (*Yakkha-chetiya*) are described in Jaina and Buddhist texts.