Yaksha
Yaksha (Sanskrit यक्ष yakṣa, Pali yakkha) is the name of a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, who are caretakers of the natural treasures hidden in the earth and tree roots. They appear in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts. The feminine form of the word is yakṣī) or Yakshini (yakṣiṇī).
In Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist texts, the yakṣa has a dual personality. On the one hand, a yakṣa may be an inoffensive nature-fairy, associated with woods and mountains; but there is also a darker version of the yakṣa, which is a kind of ghost (bhuta) that haunts the wilderness and waylays and devours travelers, similar to the rakṣasas.
In Kālidāsa's poem Meghadūta, for instance, the yakṣa narrator is a romantic figure, pining with love for his missing beloved. By contrast, in the didactic Hindu dialogue of the Yakṣapraśnāḥ "Questions of the Yakṣa", it is a tutelary spirit of a lake that challenges Yudhiṣṭhira. 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.
Yaksha (festival)
Yaksha is an annual performing arts festival organized by the Isha Foundation at the Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore. Begun in January 2010, the festival features musical concerts and dances by eminent performing artistes from around the country and is aimed at preserving and promoting India's traditional music and dance forms. The name of the festival is inspired by Yakshas - celestial beings in Indian mythology.
Performances in 2011
Yaksha 2011 will be held from 24 February to 2 March 2011 with the theme "A Celebration of Culture and Music." The artist line-up includes, Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan on the Hindustani sitar, Odissi dancer Sonal Mansingh,Carnatic vocalist T. V. Sankaranarayanan, Hindustani vocalist Parveen Sultana,Anil Srinivasan & Sikkil Gurucharan performing jugalbandi carnatic piano and vocal,Ronu Majumdar on the Hindustani flute and Hindustani vocalist Pandit Jasraj.
Performances in 2010
Yaksha 2010 was held from 30 January to 11 February with the theme "A Celestial Feast of Music and Dance". Yaksha 2010 saw performances from prominent artistes such as Vishwa Mohan Bhatt who performed a Mohan Veena recital on a Hawaiian Guitar using techniques of the sitar, sarod and veena. A violin concert given by three generations of the same family - Dr. N. Rajam, her daughter Sangeetha Shankar and granddaughters Ragini Shankar & Nandini Shankar was featured on February 8.Sudha Ragunathan who was featured on February 6 gave a Carnatic recital despite suffering from a bout of viral fever. Other performances included Aditi Mangaldas and the Drishtikon Dance Foundation troupe's Kathak dance recital,Hariprasad Chaurasia on the flute,Padma Talwalkar and Rajashekhar Mansur performing Hindustani classical music and Charishnu's performance of Kathakali, Odissi and Manipuri dance
Yaksha (rural locality)
Yaksha (Russian: Якша) is the name of several rural localities in Russia:
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