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夜叉

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: (Skt. yakṣa)

Senses:

  • Spirits of the dead who fly about in the night. Demons in the earth, or in the air, or in the lower heavens; they are malignant, and violent, and devourers (of human flesh). One of the eight kinds of spiritual beings who appear in Buddhist scriptures 八部衆 (Pāli yakkha). Also transliterated as 乞叉, 藥叉, 夜乞叉, and 閱叉; translated as 捷疾鬼, 勇健,能噉, 威德, 暴惡. Monier-Williams says: "... generally regarded as beings of a benevolent and inoffensive disposition, like the yakṣa in Kālidāsaʼs Megha-dūta, they are occasionally classed with piśācas and other malignant spirits, and sometimes said to cause demoniacal possession." [Charles Muller; source(s): Ui, Nakamura, Soothill, JEBD, Yokoi, Iwanami]
  • The eight attendants 八大將 of Kuvera, or Vaiśravaṇa, the god of wealth; those on earth bestow wealth, those in the empyrean houses and carriages, those in the lower heavens guard the moat and gates of the heavenly city. There is another set of sixteen. The names of all are given in the Dhāraṇī-samuccaya-sūtra 陀羅尼集經. See also rakṣa 羅刹 and kṛtya 吉遮. Yakṣa-kṛtya are credited with the powers of both yakṣa and kṛtya. [Charles Muller; source(s): Soothill]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 1063

    Bulgyo sajeon 567a

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 1237b

    Iwanami bukkyō jiten 806

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 329b/366

    Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi) 822

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 1373c

    Fo Guang Dictionary 3130

    Ding Fubao

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)4895c,514a,4223c, (v.9-10)497b

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 1754-1

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 2001-09-08

    Updated: 2022-01-24