The Collaborative International Dictionary
Yaksha \Yak"sha\, n. [Skr.] (Hindoo Myth.) A kind of demigod attendant on Kuvera, the god of wealth.
Wiktionary
n. (context Buddhism English) a spirit that watches over the treasures hidden in the earth and tree roots
Wikipedia
Yaksha ( Sanskrit , Odia-ଯକ୍ଷ, Pali yakkha) is the name of a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, who are caretakers of the natural treasures hidden in the earth and tree roots. They appear in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts. The feminine form of the word is or Yakshini ().
In Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist texts, the has a dual personality. On the one hand, a may be an inoffensive nature- fairy, associated with woods and mountains; but there is also a darker version of the , which is a kind of ghost ( bhuta) that haunts the wilderness and waylays and devours travelers, similar to the .
In Kālidāsa's poem Meghadūta, for instance, the narrator is a romantic figure, pining with love for his missing beloved. By contrast, in the didactic Hindu dialogue of the "Questions of the ", it is a tutelary spirit of a lake that challenges . The may have originally been the tutelary gods of forests and villages, and were later viewed as the steward deities of the earth and the wealth buried beneath.
In Indian art, male are portrayed either as fearsome warriors or as portly, stout and dwarf-like. Female , known as , are portrayed as beautiful young women with happy round faces and full breasts and hips.
Yaksha is a name of several nature-spirits in Hindu and Buddhist mythology.
Yaksha may also refer to:
- Yaksha Kingdom, territory of a mythical tribe in ancient India and ancient Sri Lanka
- Yaksha (rural locality), several rural localities in Russia
- Yaksha (festival), a cultural festival in India
Yaksha is an annual performing arts festival organized by the Isha Foundation at the Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore. Begun in January 2010, the festival features musical concerts and dances by eminent performing artistes from around the country and is aimed at preserving and promoting India's traditional music and dance forms. The name of the festival is inspired by Yakshas - celestial beings in Indian mythology.
Yaksha is the name of several rural localities in Russia:
- Yaksha, Komi Republic, a settlement in Yaksha Rural-Type Settlement Administrative Territory of Troitsko-Pechorsky District in the Komi Republic;
- Yaksha, Kostroma Oblast, a settlement in Petrovskoye Settlement of Chukhlomsky District in Kostroma Oblast;
Usage examples of "yaksha".
For Yaksha grew faster than any child in the history of our village, and when I was fifteen years of age, he was already, in stature and education, my age, although he had been born only eight years earlier.
I was fifteen, that Yaksha started to go out of the way to talk to me.
I accepted these gifts reluctantly because I felt as if one day Yaksha would want something in return, something I would not want to give.
I asked my father about it, but he said that we could not hold Yaksha to blame.
By then Yaksha was ten and looked twenty, and if he was not the leader of the village, few people doubted that he would be in charge soon.
He had watched Yaksha grow up with pride, no doubt feeling personally responsible for the birth of this wonderful young man.
He told me not to say anything to the others, that he would ask Yaksha to leave the village quietly and not come back.
At the ceremony honoring his death I broke down and cried out the many things that had happened the night Yaksha had been born.
In that moment Yaksha became my lord, and I cried for him instead of for Vishnu.
Yet the dream I just had, of Amba and Rama and Yaksha, of the beginning, is the one I find the most painful.
If it is Yaksha after me, and I have little doubt now, then he may try to get to me through Ray.
Yet Yaksha, more than any living or nonliving being, already knows where I am vulnerable.
I know it will not stop Yaksha for a second if he wishes to come for me.
Yet I do not believe that I can run successfully from Yaksha, not once he has got me in his sights, which he obviously does.
Because when we were growing up, I had noticed that Yaksha had a tendency to disappear in the middle of the day.