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CHAPTER II
THE YAKSAS AND THE SASANA-DEVATĀS
In what period of time and how the Yakṣas and their spouses Yakṣinis otherwise known as Sasana-devatās first appear ed in the Jaina pantheon, we have no means of ascertaining. This much can be said with reliable certainty that these demigods do not represent purely Jaina elements but the form in which we find them is an outcome of mixture of ideas. The names of some of the Yakṣas and Šāsana-devatās betray unmistakable identity with those of Hindu deities while the symbols connected with them are also of those of the latter class. These
are:
Agni-Purāna.
The Yakṣas as a class had existed in popular belief and in literary tradition of the Hindus much earlier than the rise of both Buddhism and Jainism. Kuvera or Vaisravana, the king of the Yaksas, who was the treasurer of Siva and lord of the Alaka is several times referred to in carly Hindu literature His attendants were many and several of them are mentioned in a canonical text of the Jainas thus, Pūrṇabhadra, Manibhadra Šalibhadra, Sumanabhadra Lakṣarakṣa, Pūrṇarakṣa, Šravana, Sarvayasas, Sarva-kāma, Samṛddha, Amogha, Asmata.1 Of these Manibhadra, whose another name is Yakṣendra or Yakṣapati attained much antiquarian importance on account of a discovery of his image in the frontier. Such discussion was evoked and it was generally accepted by scholars that Manibhadra was a Yakṣa. It may be remarked here in brief that this image must be Jaina in origin on the ground that Manibhadra's name as Yakṣendra is counted in the list of the Jaina Yakṣas and the inscription in the pedestal reads like the Mathura Jaina
1.
प्रचेतसः सुता यक्षास्तेषां नामानि मे शृणु । केवल हरिकेशश्च कपिलः काञ्चनस्तथा । मेघमाली च यक्षाणां गण एष उदाहृतः ॥
2.
Bhagavati-Sutra III. 7, also discussed by Rai Bahadur R. Chanda in his "four ancient Yakṣa statues", p. 6. Journal of the Dept. of Letters, Cal. Universitv. 1921.
See M. BH.
