A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c17.29

c17.29

The female figure in the Woman and Tree design used to be described as a ‘dancing-girl’. But, whether nude or clothed, she is never represented as dancing, and Dr. Vogel certainly appears to be right in maintaining that she should be interpreted, not as a dancing-girl, but as a Yakshī, or female sprite.² The Yakshas and Yakshīs played in ancient popular Indian Buddhism a prominent part comparable with that played by the Nats in modern Burmese Buddhism. Recent students of Indian art recognize that fact, and perceive, for instance, that the constant attendant of Buddha in the Gandhāra reliefs, who carries a thunderbolt, and was formerly identified as Devadatta or Māra, is meant for a Yaksha; and that the impressive statuette in the Lahore Museum, which used to be called an ‘Indo-Scythian King’, represents Kuvera, the king of the Yakshas (*ante*, Plate XXVIII).