NO. 6 YAKSAS COOMARASWAMY 7 



shoulder flames. In this connection it should be safe to identify the 

 flaming Kankall Tila figure (pi. i6, fig. 2) with Vaisravana; the 

 corpulent body in any case is that of a Yaksa, and the flames repre- 

 sent the fiery energy inherent in a king. 



Of Kubera's Yaksa followers we learn a good deal: they possess 

 the power of assuming any shape, the females particularly that of a 

 very beautiful woman (so that an unknown beauty is asked if she be 

 the goddess of the district, or a Yaks!) ; ^ they are kindly, but can 

 fight fiercely as guardians (Kubera himself is a " world-protector," 

 and it is chiefly as attendants, guardians and gate-keepers that the 

 Yaksas appear in Buddhist art, equally in India and in the Far East) ; 

 they are sometimes specifically grouped with Nagas, more often with 

 gods, Gandharvas and Nagas ; they are known as " good folk " 

 (Pimyajana) and appear to be countless in number, though few are 

 individually named. Manibhadra (Manivara, Manicara, Manimat) 

 in the Mahabhdrata (5, 192, 44 f.) is a Yaksaraja, and Kubera's 

 chief attendant. He is invoked with Kubera as a patron of merchants ; 

 this may be the explanation of the statue at Pawaya, set up by a guild 

 (gostha) (pi. i, fig. 2): 



Ganesa is undoubtedly a Yaksa type, by his big belly and general 

 character : but he is not cited by name in any lists. He is effectively 

 and perhaps actually equivalent to Kubera or Manibhadra.^ But the 

 earliest representation of an elephant-headed Yaksa seems to be that 

 of the AmaravatI coping, Burgess, Stiipas of Amaravati and Jaggay- 

 yapcta, plate XXX, i (here pi. 23, fig. i ) ; and this is not a Yaksaraja, 

 but more like a guhya or gana. Ganesa is son of Siva, who is him- 

 self called Ganesa (Lord of hosts) in the Mahahhdrata. Ganesa as 

 elephant-headed deity does not appear in the Epic except in the intro- 

 duction which is a late addition. The figure of Ganesa begins to appear 

 quite commonly in Gupta art, about 400 A. D., e. g., at Bhumara, plate 

 18, figure I ; at Deogarh (pilaster left of the Anantasayin panel). 



There is some confusion of Yaksas and Raksasas, who according 

 to one tradition have a common origin ; both have good and evil quali- 

 ties, benevolent and malevolent as the case may be ; very often the 

 same descriptions would apply to either, but the two classes are not 

 identical, and broadly speaking we find the Yaksas associated with 



^ MahahhUrata, Vana Parva, Ch. CCLXIII (Draupadi). 



■■'There exists a " story of the Mahayak?a Manibhadra" in MS. ; see Hoernle 

 in Congr. Int. Orientalistes, 12, Rome, 1899, Vol. I, p. 165. 



^ Cf . Scherman, Dickbauchtypen in der indischen Gotterzvelt, Jahrb. as. Kunst, 

 I, 1724. Also M. F. A. Bulletin, No. 154. 



