26 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



In the beautiful Jaina Tamil classic, the Jlvaka-cintdmani (Vinson, 

 J., Legendes houddhistcs et Djainas, Paris, 1900, t. 2, p. 43) the 

 grateful JIvaka erects a temple for the Yakkha Sutaiijana, sets up a 

 Statue, and dedicates a town (the rents whereof would support the 

 service of the temple) ; then he has prepared a drama relating to the 

 history of the Yaksa, and most likely we should understand that this 

 drama was presented in the temple on special occasions for the 

 pleasure of the deity. 



The tutelary Yaksa at Vaisali, as we have seen, was worshipped 

 with oblations, dance and song, and the sound of musical instruments. 



Later books appear to show that Yaksa worship and some par- 

 ticular Yaksas retained their prestige throughout the medieval period. 

 In these texts we find a cult of the same general character, and can 

 glean some further details. In the Kathasaritsagara, part I, chapter 

 XIII, we find: 



" In our country, within the city, there is the shrine of a powerful 

 Yaksa named Manibhadra, established by our ancestors. The people 

 there come and make petitions at this shrine, offering various gifts, 

 in order to obtain various blessings." Offerings (of food) are re- 

 ferred to, which it was the duty of the officiating priest to receive and 

 eat. The anecdote turns upon the interesting fact that the Yaksa 

 temple was regularly used as a temporary jail for adulterers. 



Numerous other and incidental references to Yaksas and Yaksinis 

 will be found in the same work, passim (e. g., in ch. XXXIV, story of 

 the Yaksa Virupaksa). 



The equally late Parisistaparvan of Hemacandra (thirteenth cen- 

 tury) Canto 3, has a story of two old women, Buddhi and Siddhi : 

 " Buddhi had for a long time continued to sacrifice to a Yaksa, Bhola 

 (or Bholaka), when the god, pleased with her devotion, promised her 

 whatever she should ask," etc. A little further on we find a human 

 being, Lalitariga, " disguised as a statue of a Yaksa." ' The same 

 text, Canto 2, eighth story, describes an ordeal undergone by a woman 

 justly accused of adultery. " Now there was a statue of the Yaksa 

 Sobhana of such sanctity that no guilty person could pass through 

 between its legs." The lady (like Guinevere in a similar predicament) 

 frames an oath which is literally true but essentially false. " While 

 the puzzled Yaksa was still at a loss to know how to act," she passed 

 through his legs. 



Devendra, in the Utiaradhyayana tlkd ( Jacobi, p. 39, Meyer, Hindu 

 tales, p. 140), Story of Domuha, tells of a lady named Gunamala 



'Jacobi, H., Sthaviravali Charitra, Bib. Ind., CalcuUa, 1891, pp. 33, 37. 



