Sandstone kneeling Yaksha of a Monkey - 6970

Sandstone kneeling Yaksha of a Monkey - Temple guardian
Bantaey Srei style 10th Century- Cambodia
Dimensions: Ht 63 x W 29 x W 24 cm 
Price please enquire.

The yakshas (Sanskrit: यक्ष yakṣa; Pali: yakkha) are a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent,but sometimes mischievous or capricious, connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest, treasure 
and wilderness. They appear in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, as well as ancient and medieval era temples of South Asia and Southeast Asia as guardian deities. The feminine form of the word is yakṣī or yakshini (Sanskrit: यक्षिणी yakṣiṇī; Pali:Yakkhini)

In Hindu,Jain, and Buddhist texts, the yakṣa has a dual personality.On the one hand,a yakṣa maybe 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 travellers,similar to the rakṣasas.