8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



Kubera, the Raksasas with Ravana, who is their chief. Yaksas as a 

 rule are kindly, Raksasas bloodthirsty.'' 



Yaksas are not only the attendants, but also, the bearers of their 

 Lord Vaisravana. They play, indeed, the part of bearers or sup- 

 porters in all kinds of situations where their attitude is one of friendly 

 service ; thus, they are constantly represented as supporting the four 

 legs of Kanthaka, on the occasion of the Abhiniskramana (Great 

 Renunciation, or Going Forth of the Buddha)." They bear, too, the 

 pavilion in which the Bodhisattva descends to take incarnation in the 

 womb of Maya Devi (pi. 21, fig. i). In connection with Vais- 

 ravana, and other deities, the Guhyas appear in crouching dwarf- 

 ish forms as supporters; in fact, as "vehicles" {vahanani) as in 

 plate 3, figure i, etc. Some of these types have been preserved with 

 remarkable fidelity in Far Eastern art, in the case, for example, of the 

 Jikoku-Ten of the Kondo, Nara, Japan,^ so closely resembling the 

 Kubera from Bharhut (pi. 3, fig. i), and the Siva figure of the 

 Gudimallam lihgam (pi. 17, fig. i). In the case of Siva, the Yaksa 

 vehicle in later images (Nataraja, etc.) has come to be regarded as a 

 demoniac symbol of spiritual darkness (apasnidra purusa, or mala). 



Kuvera is also " Naravahana," but the Naras here in question are 

 not men, but mythological beings variously described, sometimes as 

 bird horses, which may possibly explain the occasional representation 

 of winged Atlantes (pi. 13, figs. 2 and 3, also Foucher, L'art grcco- 

 houddhiquc . . . ., fig. 314). The interpretation Naravahana = borne 

 by men, is later. 



As Atlantes, supporters of buildings and superstructures (pi. 13, 

 figs. I, 2, 3), and as garland-bearers (pi. 23, figs, i, 2) Yaksas are 

 constantly represented in early Indian art (Bharhut, SaficI, Gandhiira. 

 etc.). Those who support Kuvera's flying palace are designated 

 Guhyas (Mahdblidrata, 2, 10, 3) ; Kuvera is Guhyapati. The Guhyas 

 are essentially earth-gnomes (cf. pi. 13, fig. i). The YaksinI of 

 Kathdsaritsdgara, ch. XXXVII, who carries a man through the air, 

 is called a Guhyaki. 



Some Yaksagrahas (demon possessors, causing disease) are at- 

 tendants of Skanda, who is sometimes called Guha, a name which 



^ For a detailed summary of the Epic accounts of Kubera and the Yak.sas, see 

 Hopkins, Et^ic Mythology, p. 142 ff., also pp. 30, 38, 57, 67 ff., 14s, 148, etc. See 

 also Waddell, Evolution of the Buddhist cult, J. R. A. S. Any connection with 

 the Greek Kabeiros is very improbable (Keith). 



'^ E. g., Foucher, L'art greco-bouddique du GandhCira, i, pp. 357, 554 ff., and 

 figs. 182-4, ch. ; Stein, Scrindia, p. 858. 



^ For the Nara figure see Nara Horyuj'i Okagami, Vol. 38, pi. 7, or Warner, 

 Japanese sculpture of the Suiko period, fig. 35. 



