Yakshas- Hindu RaceRace"Nature Spirits"
Also known as: Yaksha, Yakkha, Punyajana, यक्ष, and Yakṣa
Description
Nature spirits who guard buried treasures and hidden wealth, dwelling at crossroads and beneath ancient trees. At a forest lake, a Yaksha struck down four Pandava brothers who drank without answering its riddles. Only the fifth paused to answer.
Mythology & Lore
Guardians of Hidden Wealth
Yakshas are nature spirits born, in the Puranic accounts, from Kashyapa. They guard the hidden treasures of the earth: gold in mountains, gems in caves. Their king is Kubera, god of wealth, who rules from the celestial city of Alaka on Mount Kailasa. Yakshinis, the female spirits, haunt sacred trees and water sources.
The Yaksha Prashna
The Mahabharata's Vana Parva tells how the exiled Pandavas, dying of thirst in the forest, found a lake. A voice from the water warned that anyone drinking without answering its questions would die. The brothers drank one by one and collapsed at the water's edge. Only Yudhishthira paused.
The Yaksha asked him riddles. What is swifter than the wind? The mind. What follows a man in death? His deeds. What is the greatest wonder in the world? That every day men see others die, yet each believes he himself will live forever.
Satisfied, the Yaksha revealed himself as Dharma, Yudhishthira's divine father, and revived the fallen brothers.
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