Note 13 — INDEX

No local tradition throws light on the reason why this figure is called a Yaksha. The holding a head in his hand suggests that he may have been a guardian Bhairav in some Buddhist temple and so remembered as a guardian or Yaksha. Or he may have been supposed to be a statue of the builder of the temple and so have been called a Yaksha since that word was used for a race of skilful architects and craftsmen. Troyer’s Rajataraṅgíní, I. 369. In the Vrijji temples in Tirhut which Buddhist accounts make older than Buddhism the objects of worship were ancestral spirits who were called Yakshas. If the Buddhist legends of Śaka settlements in Tirhut during Gautama’s lifetime (a.d. 540) have any historical value these Vrijjis were Śakas. As (J. As. Ser. VI. Tom. II. page 310) Yaka is a Mongol form of Śaka the ancestral guardians would be Śakas. Compare in Eastern Siberia the Turki tribe called Yakuts by the Russians and Sokhas by themselves, Ency. Brit. XXIV. 725. This would explain why the mythic Yaksha was a guardian, a builder, and a white horseman. It would explain why the name Yaksha was given to the Baktrian Greeks who built stupas and conquered India for Aśoka (J. As. Ser. VII. Vol. VI. page 170; Heeley in Indian Antiquary, IV. 101). It further explains how the name came to be applied to the Yuechi or Kusháns who like the Yavanas were guardians white horsemen and builders. In Sindh and Kachh the word Yaksha seems to belong to the white Syrian horsemen who formed the strength of Muhammad Kásim’s army, a.d. 712. (Tod’s Western India, 197; Reinaud’s Fragments, 191; Briggs’ Farishtah, IV. 404–409). ↑