NO. 6 VAKsAS — COOMARASWAMY 2rj 



who " was unhappy because she had no daughter. And she vowed an 

 oblation (nvdiyam) to the Yaksa called Mayana .... a daughter 

 was born of her She gave the oblation to the Yaksa." 



In the Prabandhacintamani, another Jaina story book, about 1419 

 A. D., we find a Yaksa by name Kapardin invoked by a Jaina layman, 

 acting on the advice of his Guru.* The Yaksa bestows wealth on his 

 supplicant, and then relates the circumstances to his sons, " in order to 

 manifest in their hearts the power of religion"; the Yaksa himself 

 is a worshipper of the Jina. It is clear that Jainism and Yaksa wor- 

 ship could be as closely interrelated as Buddhism and Hinduism have 

 often been. 



Rites for attracting YaksTs are mentioned in the Kathasaritsagara, 

 chapter XLIX. These rites are performed in cemeteries, and are 

 evidently Tantrik. The beautiful Yaksis Vidyunmala, Candralekha. 

 and Sulocana are said to be the best among them. A certain Adityasar- 

 man, living in Ujjayinl, obtains the last as his wife, and lives with 

 her in Alaka ; their son Gunasarman is sent back to the human world, 

 and becomes a great king. 



6. YAKSA WORSHIP A BHAKTI CULT 



The reader cannot fail to have observed that the facts of Yaksa 

 worship summarized above are almost identical with those charac- 

 teristic of other and contemporary Bhakti (devotional) cults. It is, 

 in fact, a great error to assume that the term Bhagavat {" worship- 

 ful ") applies only to Visnu, and Bhaktd {" devout worshipper ") only 

 to worshippers of Visnu.* The rise, or, as it would be better to say, 

 the coming into prominence of Bhakti cults in the centuries immedi- 

 ately preceding the beginning of the Christian era was not an isolated 

 sectarian development, but a general tendency. All forms of belief 

 were involved, Buddhism no less than others.' 



Not only is Vasudeva (Visnu) styled Bhagavat, but also the Four 

 Great Kings, the Maharajas, Regents of the Quarters, amongst whom 



^Prabandhacintamani, Trans, by C. H. Tawney, London, 1901, p. 203. 



^ As might be gathered from Bhandarkar, R. G., Vaisnavisin, Saivism, and 

 minor religious systems (Grundriss indo-arische Ph. und A.). 



* For the Bhakti character of even early Buddhism, see De la Vallee-Poussin, 

 loc. cit. pp. 334 ff. The Majjhima Nikaya, i, 142, has " He who has faith 

 (srdddha) in Me and love (prema) for Me will attain to heaven." So too 

 Saivism, " Even after committing all crimes, men by mental worship of Siva 

 are freed from sin" (Mahabharata, 13, 18, 65). Both assurances are altogether 

 in the spirit of the Bhagavad Glta. 



