Research Items
1931; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 128; Issue: 3219 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1038/128071a0
ISSN1476-4687
Tópico(s)Indian History and Philosophy
ResumoYaksas.—In ‘Yaksas’, pt. 2, published by the Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art, Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy continues his study of the Yaksas cults of India. All Yaksas, great or small, are vegetation spirits directly controlling, or bestowing on their bhaktas, fertihity and wealth. All Yaksas are intimately connected with the waters; for example, Kubera's inexhaustible treasuries are a lotus and a conch; innumerable Yaksas have a makara or other fish-tailed animal as their vehicle; Kamadeva has the makara as his cognisance; the greater tutelary Yaksas control the rains essential to prosperity. In the decorative art, vegetation is shown either springing from the mouth or navel of a Yaksa, from the open jaws of a makara, or other fish-tailed animal, or from a conch, but never directly from a symbol representing the earth. But the Yaksas do not so much control the waters as water, as the essence in the water, which is at one with the sap in trees, the elixir of the Devas, especially Agni, with the soma, and the seed in the living being. They are a far greater and mysterious power, and far more significant than the Nagas or dragons, who are also water deities. The importance of the Yaksas in what has been called the Life cult is to suggest that this cult, which is connected with the worship of the Great Mother, may have been the primitive religion of India. A belief in the origin of life in the water was common to many ancient cultures, and must have arisen very naturally in the case of peoples, like those of the valleys of the Euphrates, Tigris, or the Indus, among whom water, whether of the seasonal rains or the overflowing river, was the most serious prerequisite for vegetal increase.
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