Yaksha
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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General character
In Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist mythology, the Template:IAST has a dual personality. On the one hand, a yakṣa may be an inoffensive nature-fairy, associated with woods and mountains; but there is a much darker version of the Template:IAST, which is a kind of cannibalistic ogre, ghost or demon that haunts the wilderness and waylays and devours travelers, similar to the rakṣasas.
In Kālidāsa's poem Meghadūta, for instance, the Template:IAST narrator is a romantic figure, pining with love for his missing beloved. By contrast, in the didactic Hindu dialogue of the Template:IAST ("questions of the Template:IAST"), a dangerous cannibalistic [[Yaksha|Template:IAST]], the tutelary spirit of a lake, threatens the life of the epic hero [[Yudhisthira|Template:IAST]].
The {yakṣas 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 yakṣas are portrayed either as fearsome warriors or as portly, stout and dwarf-like. Female Template:IAST, known as [[yakshini|Template:IAST]], are portrayed as beautiful young women with happy round faces and full breasts and hips.
In the state of Kerala, in South India, Yakshis are depicted as vampire enchantresses.
