The Development of Hindu Iconography c16.8

c16.8

Patañjali’s evidence regarding the existence of Yakṣa images and shrines is corroborated by early Buddhist and Jaina texts, copious references to which have been collected by Coomaraswamy in his Yakṣas (Part I, pp. 17 ff.). The Mahābhārata tells us that there were far-famed shrines of Yakṣiṇīs at Muñjavaṭa and Rājagṛha where daily (naityaka) rituals were performed (III. 83, 23 and III. 84, 85). The Agnipurāṇa, while referring to respective positions of the temples of different deities in a town, enjoins that those of Yakṣa and Guha (Kārttikeya) should be set up in the northern sector of it (saumye Yakṣa-Guhasya ca; Ch. 39, verse 12). It is a fact, however, that iconographic texts systematised at a comparatively late date seldom contain any explicit description of the Yakṣa images. T. A. G. Rao has collected several texts descriptive of such iconographic types as Vasus, Nāgas (Nāgadeva), Sādhyas, Asuras, Apsarasas, Piśācas, Vetālas, etc., from various sources, but no mention of the Yakṣa type is made by him (op. cit., Vol. II, Appendix B, Pratimālakṣaṇāni, pp. 271-76). So, Hemādri’s characterisation of it on the basis of the Mayasaṃgraha is of great interest: ‘the Yakṣas should be made pot-bellied, two-armed, holding nidhis in their hands, and (be shown) fierce (due to)