The Doctrine of the Jainas, Described after the Old Sources c6.29

c6.29

No more than the Canon refers to the symbols does it refer to the two deities of male and female sex associated with every Titthagara. They are called yakṣa and yakṣiṇī or yakṣī or sāsana- (śruta) devatā. The latter may well have inaugurated the conception in so far as it was the commandment of Jina that first took on human shape, i.e. female shape in correspondence with basic Indian conceptions. Moreover, there was the demand for establishing granting powers for laymen since the preachers of salvation were beyond reach of their supplications¹. Their names, again, disclose obvious suggestions of the Brahman sphere of ideas². For these as well as for other persons and objects pertaining to the later cult comp. v. GLASENAPP, Jainismus p. 362ff., 492³.