NARRATOR: Framed under an archway of overgrown vines and lotus blossoms, we find a Yaksha.

JOHN GUY: Yaksha is the term we use for these male nature deities. They take a particular characterization of human form. They tend to be portly, squat, and rather rotund.

NARRATOR: Here we see a typical example—the Yaksha is seated in a lotus pond, full of aquatic and plant life with his mouth wide open. In effect, the Yaksha is giving life to these plant forms.

JOHN GUY: It’s quite an extraordinary conceptualization of the origins of nature and of life itself.

NARRATOR: Water and plant imagery were central to Indian art and life. Nature deities like the Yaksha are seen before the introduction of Buddhism in India. Buddhist monks incorporated these recognizable images to guard the stupa and to establish themselves and this practice as sources of luck and prosperity.

JOHN GUY: Subcontinent India is a place which depends on the monsoon.If the monsoon fails, crops die. Livestock die, people die. It is fundamental.

NARRATOR: The utter necessity of water is central to the ancient Indian concept of a universal monarch known as the Chakravartin King. The earliest representations depict the king gesturing to the rain-filled clouds in the sky as gold coins rain down.Just as the King has power to bring prosperity from the skies, so too does the Yaksha generate life. Yakshas played an important role for the monks looking to establish a similar magical authority among local populations.

JOHN GUY: This is a metaphor for the monsoon rains and the monks appropriate some of that role and position themselves as rainmakers in order to bring prosperity to their community and to themselves through their support.