14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



king. Later, he repudiates her and marries a human princess. She 

 returns to the Yakkhas, but is killed as a traitress. Her two children 

 became the ancestors of the Pulinda (perhaps the Veddas, who are 

 still worshippers of Yakkhas; perhaps as ancestors?). In this story 

 the Yakkhas, though credited with supernatural powers, seem to be 

 regarded as aborigines themselves. 



Not only may a human being be reborn as a Yaksa, but vice versa.' 

 A very interesting case of such a rebirth appears in the Indrakila 

 inscription, near Bezwada, of the ninth century. This inscription 

 occurs on a stele, sculptured with reliefs illustrating the Kiratarjuna 

 episode of the Mohabhdrata; the stele was set up by one Trikotti- 

 Boyu, who regarded himself as an incarnation of the friendly Yaksa 

 who at Indra's behest guided Arjuna to the inaccessible Indrakila hill, 

 there to wrestle with Siva and to receive the Pahipata astram. Extant 

 texts of the Epic do not mention any Yaksa, but some version of the 

 story must have known him, and Trikotti-Boyu regarded him as an 

 ancestor.^ 



3. YAKSAS AS TUTELARY DEITIES (PATRON SAINTS) AND 

 GUARDIAN ANGELS 



In many cases Yaksas have been human beings attached to the 

 service of a community or individual, and, reborn as a spirit or geni, 

 continue to watch over those whom they had formerly served. Thus, 

 from a Tibetan source ' we get the following story connected with the 

 times of king Bimbisara, a contemporary of the Buddha : 



At that time one of the gate-keepers of Vaisali liad died and had been born 

 again among the demons. He gave the inhabitants of Vaisali the following 

 instructions : " As I have been born again among the demons, confer on me the 

 position of a Yaksa and hang a bell round my neck. Whenever foe to the inhabi- 



' The doctrine of reincarnation is not Vedic, and in view of the suggestions 

 of indigenous origin that have been plausibly made, it is of interest to note how 

 constantly the idea of rebirth is connected with the Yaksa mythology, in which 

 a Yaksa may have been, or may again become a human being. Hodson, T. C, 

 The Primitive Culture of India, p. 7, and Lecture V, passim, shows that a 

 belief in reincarnation is widely spread amongst primitive tribes in India 

 (Khonds, Bhuiyas, Garos, etc.). The Lushais (p.- 105) desire to escape from 

 the mortal coil of reincarnation. Santals say that " good men enter into fruit- 

 trees " (Sir W. Hunter, Annals of Rural Bengal). According to a Buddhist 

 tradition Kuvera himself was once a very charitable Brahman (S. B. B., IV, 

 p. 193, note 4). 



" Sastri, H. K., The sculptured pillar on, the Indrakila hill at Bcsivada, 

 Ann. Rep. Arch. Surv. India, 1915-16. 



" Schiefner, A., Tibetan tales from the Kah-gyur (Ralston, p. 81). 



