NO. 6 YAKSAS COOMARASWAMY I7 



4. SHRINES AND TEMPLES (CAITYA, AYATANA) 



The haunt or abode {bhavanam) of a Yaksa, often referred to as 

 a caitya (Pali, cctiya, Prakrit, cciya) or ayatana (Prakrit, ayayana) 

 may be outside a city, in a grove, on a mountain or at a (//la.^ (shrines 

 of Punnabhadda and Moggara-pani ; those of the Indra's Peak 

 Yakkha, and the Yakkha Suciloma near Rajagaha mentioned in the 

 Saiiivutta NikCiya, Yakkha Suttas {Kindred Sayings, i, p. 264) ; and 

 the Yaksa shrine and image of Uttarddhyayana Sfitra, ch. XII, 

 S. B. E., XLV, p. 50, note), or by a tank (the Yakkha Cittaraja, 

 MahCivainsa, ch. X) ; or at the gates of a city (slave woman reborn 

 as a YakkhinI, Malulz'aiiisa, chapter X, and the tutelary Yaksa of 

 Wii.sfdT mentioned above) ; or within a city (shrine of Manibhadra, 

 KafhCisaritsCigara,, ch. XIII) or even within the palace precincts 

 (shrine of the YakkhinI Cetiya. Malidvaiiisa, ch. X). These shrines 

 are constantly spoken of as ancient, magnificent, famous, or world- 

 renowned. 



The essential element of a Yaksa holystead is a stone table or altar 

 {vcvaddi, vianco) placed beneath the tree sacred to the Yaksa. The 

 hJiavanani of the Yakkha Suciloma at Gaya is particularly described 

 as a stone couch (better rendered as dais or altar) 1:)y or on which the 

 Buddha rested ; the words used are taiikita mailco, explained in the 

 commentary to mean a stone slab resting on four other stones {Sain- 

 yiitta Nikaya, Yakkha Suttas, ch. X, Kindred Sayings, i, p. 264). At 

 the Punnabhadda ceiya described below there were not only altars 

 (and probably an image) in an elaborate temple, but also a decorated 

 altar beneath an asoka-tree in the grove. 



It was just such an altar beneath a sacred tree that served as the 

 Bodhisattva's seat on the night of the Great Enlightenment ; Sujata's 

 maidservant, indeed, mistakes the Bodhisattva for the tree-spirit him- 

 self {Niddnakatha). It is very evident that the sacred tree and altar 

 represent a combination taken over by Buddhism from older cults, 

 and in the case of the Bodhi-tree we see the transference actually in 

 process. 



How often the hhavanas of the Yaksas mentioned in Buddhist and 

 Jaina' literature should be regarded as constructed temples it is hard 

 to say. Some, like the Punnabhadda ceiya. were certainly buildings, 

 independent of the altar beneath a sacred tree. In references to con- 

 structed temples supposed to have existed in the latter centuries pre- 

 ceding the Christian era there is nothing at all improbable ; some of 

 the dyafanas and caityas of the Epics are certainly buildings, and 

 sometimes contain statues. So. too. in Manu, 4, 39. The Candala 

 temple of Mahdhhdrata, 12. 121 (post-epical) has images and bells, 



