The Development of Hindu Iconography c16.6

c16.6

¹ Vedic Yakṣa, quick, ray of light, but also “ghost”, from *yakṣ* to move quickly; perhaps, swift creatures, changing their abode quickly and at will’: Rhys Davids and Stede, *Pāli-English Dictionary*, under *Yakkha*. In the Pāli commentaries, the word *Yakkha* means ‘a being to whom a sacrifice (of expiation or propitiation) is given’. Coomaraswamy thinks that the word is non-Aryan in its origin.