6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



Raksasas, those of the Tamasik (" dark ") class, Pretas and Bhutas 

 (Mahabharafa, 6, 41, 4) ; in other words, the Yaksas are ranked below 

 the Devas, but above the goblins and ghosts and here distinguished 

 from Bhutas. But very often they are not clearly distinguished from 

 Devas and Devatas. The Yaksas are sometimes sylvan deities, usually 

 but not always gentle, like the Vanadevatas (Hopkins, Epic Myth- 

 ology, p. 57; Atanallya Suttanta). 



Kubera or Kuvera (Vaisravana, Vaisramana, also in Buddhist lit- 

 erature Vessavana, Pancika, Jambhala, etc.),' is one of the Four 

 Great Kings (Maharajas), or EightGreat Devas, a Lokapala, Regent 

 of the North (sometimes, with Indra, of the East), and the chief of 

 all Yaksas, whence his epithets Yaksendra, Deva Yaksaraja, etc. He 

 is a god of power and productivity : worshipped especially for trea- 

 sure (as Dhanada, Vasuda, giving wealth).^ His city Alaka situated 

 on Mt. Kailasa (also the abode of Siva) is a magnificent walled town, 

 where dwell not only Yaksas, but also Kimnaras, Munis, Gandharvas 

 and Raksasas. Very possibly, as M. Goloubew (Ars Asiatica, X) has 

 suggested, the whole of the ceiling of Cave I at Ajanta may be re- 

 garded as a representation of the Paradise of Kuvera. When Kubera 

 repairs to a convention of the gods, he is accompanied by a great host 

 of Yaksas, collectively designated Vaisravana-kdyika-dcvas. 



Kubera has many beautiful palaces, groves, gardens, etc., on 

 Mt. Kailasa. These need not be referred to in detail, but it may be 

 remarked of the grove Caitraratha that its trees have jewels for their 

 leaves and girls as their fruits." 



The cult of the Lokapalas or Four Great Kings (N. Vaisravana, 

 E. Dhrtarastra, S. Virudhaka, W. Virupaksa) was extensively devel- 

 oped in Khotan, where they are represented as standing on demon 

 vahananis* Vaisravana is here very frequently represented with 



* For Jambhala see Foucher, L'Iconographie bouddhiquc dc I'Inde, I, p. 123, 

 and II, p. 51 ; his sakti is Vasundhara, the Earth-goddess. He may be sur- 

 rounded by eight Yaksinis, Bhadra, Subhadra, etc. (ibid., II, 85). 



" He might be styled Mammon : but not in a bad sense of the word, for 

 from the Indian point of view wealth, prosperity and beauty are rewards of 

 innate virtue, of which, according to the doctrine of Karma, Mammon could 

 only be the dispenser. Cf. Mahabharata, 12, 74, 3 f. 



^ Both motifs are of interest on account of their occurrence in decorative art, 

 the Bharhut coping reliefs showing many forms of jewel-bearing creepers 

 (kalpa-latd), and medieval art, especially in Ceylon (ndrl-latil designs, plate 22, 

 fig. 3) many examples of creepers with girls as their flower or fruit. The latter 

 motif, too, may have some connection with the later Arab legends of the 

 Waqwaq tree. 



* Stein, Ancient Khotan, figs. 30, 31, and pi. II; Serindia, p. 870. 



