4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



2. YAKSAS AND YAKSATTVA (" GENI-HOOD ") 



The status of a Yaksa as typically represented (i) in the later 

 sectarian literature and (2) in modern folklore will yield an imper- 

 fect, and indeed an altogether erroneous idea of the original signifi- 

 cance of Yaksattva if not examined with cautious reservations. As 

 remarked by Mrs. Rhys Davids : ^ 



The myth of the yakkha, and its evohition still, I beHeve, await investigation. 

 The English equivalent does not exist. " Geni " (djinn) is perhaps nearest 

 (cf. Pss. of the Sisters, p. 30). In the early records, yakkha as an appellation is, 

 like naga, anything but depreciative. Not only is Sakka so called (M. i, 252), 

 but the Buddha himself is so referred to in poetic diction (M. i, 383).^ 



We have seen Kakudha, son of the gods, so addressed (Kindred Sayings, 

 II, 8) ; and in D. II, 170 the city of the gods, Alakamanda, is described as 

 crowded with Yakkhas ("gods")- They have a deva's supernormal powers. 

 .... But they were decadent creatures, degraded in the later era, when the 

 stories of the Jataka verses were set down, to the status of red-eyed cannibal 

 ogres. 



And it may be added that it was only natural that in losing their 

 importance as tutelary deities, the Yaksas in popular folklore, influ- 

 enced no doubt by the prejudices already referred to as apparent in 

 the sectarian literature, should likewise have come to be classed with 

 the demoniac Raksasas.' Their fate in this connection may be com- 

 pared with that of the Devas at the hands of Zoroaster, or that of the 

 older European mythology under the influence of Christianity (e.g., 

 in Saxo Grammaticus). Notwithstanding this, it is quite possible to 

 gather both from the sectarian and the semi-secular literature a great 

 deal of information incidentally presenting unmistakable evidences 

 of the Yaksas' once honorable status, their benevolence toward men. 



^ Book of the Kindred Sayings, I, 1917, p. 262. In the above citation, M. is 

 Majjhima Nikaya and D. is Dialogues of the Buddha. An excellent article on 

 Yakkhas in Buddhist literature will be found under Yakkha in the P. T. S. 

 Pali Dictionary. 



' Elsewhere the Buddha finds it necessary to say that he is not a Deva, 

 Gandhabba, or Yakkha (Angnttara Nikaya, II, 37). 



' For gigantic or cannibal Yaksas see Kathasaritsagara, Tawney, I, pp. 127, 

 337, II, P- 594- For the cult of Yaksas (Simhalese, Yakd) surviving as 

 " devil-worship " in Ceylon see Callaway, Yakkun Nattanawa, London, 1829 ; 

 Upham, E., History and doctrine of Buddhism, 1829 ; Parker, Ancient Ceylon, 

 London, 1909, Ch. IV and Yaka, Yakkhas in Index (p. 153, a dead man speak- 

 ing in a dream says, " I am now a Yaka"). For an excellent general account 

 of non-Aryan deities, local and tutelary, beneficent and .malevolent, see White- 

 head, H., The village gods of South India, Oxford, 1916 ("in many villages 

 the shrine is simply a rough stone platform under a tree"), also Mitra, S. C, 

 Village deities of Northern Bengal, Hindustan Review, February, 1922, and 

 Enthoven, R. E., The folklore of Bombay, Pt. Ill, Tree and snake ivorship. 



