YAK?A

Yak?a (P?li, yakkha) are indigenous Indian tree spirits that are included in the list of the occupants of the lowest of the hells, where they torture beings, sometimes quite graphically. Either male or female, most yak?as are wild, demonic, sexually prolific beings who live in solitary places and are hostile toward people, particularly monks and nuns, whose meditation they disturb by making loud noises. Yak?as are associated variously with fertility, the earth, water, and trees, as well as with lust and delusion (m?y?). Frequently, however, they are converted to Buddhism and "tamed," becoming active, positive forces in the world. Yak?as appear in various j?taka tales. In the Devadhamma-j?taka, for instance, the Buddha-to-be explains to a vicious yakkha that he has attained his lowly state due to his past karma (action), and the yakkha converts to Buddhism and becomes a protector of the king. Vajrap??i, who becomes a particularly prominent divinity in the Mah?y?na, is in early texts a yak?a who protects Buddhism and serves as the Buddha's bodyguard. In other texts, though, yak?as are considerably more fierce. In the Val?hassana-j?taka, for instance, there is a yak?a city on an island (Sri Lanka) inhabited by female yak?in?s who lure sailors with their apparent beauty, only to enslave, torture, and devour the sailors before they are rescued by the bodhisattva. In other early texts, such as the ??avaka-sutta of the Sutta-nip?ta, the yak?a frequently plays the role of the skeptic or reluctant convert, and thus serves as both a foil for the Buddha to preach the dharma and a metaphor for the power of the dharma to reform even the most wicked. Yak?as are represented in Buddhist sculpture as early as the Mathur? period (fourth through second centuries b.c.e.), frequently as caur?-holding attendants and servants of the Buddha. They are especially prominent at S?Ñc? and Bh?rhut.

See also:Divinities; Ghosts and Spirits

Bibliography

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. Yak?as. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1931.

Sutherland, Gail Hinich. The Disguises of the Demon: The Development of the Yak?a in Hinduism and Buddhism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991.

Jacob N. Kinnard