2

Origins of the Yogini-s : Daimonesses

27 to 66

"The Yoginis ... were never portrayed as practicing yoga for the simple reason that yoga as we know it had not been invented."

{In the early period, the use of asana-s and of bandha-s would seem to have been confined to the Ajivika practitioners.} {/Yoga/ is its earliest signification 'supernatural means (of achieving some effect)'; so that /Yogini/ was simply 'female practitioner of supernatural means'.}

"the earliest mention of Yoginis ... is to be found in

a circa sixth-century C.E. chapter of the ... Agni Puran.a (AP) and

the circa seventh-century C.E. Buddhist Caryagiti".

"the term "Dryad" is quite a literal translation of the Sanskrit Vr.ks.aka, ... class of beings identified with trees".

p. 30

"the lunar goddesses

Raka,

Sinivali, and

Kuhu ...,

who represented

the full-moon day,

the fourteenth day of the waning moon, and

the new-moon day, respectively."

p. 280, n. 2:15

"The Apastambha S`rauta Sutra (3.9.4-5) prescribes offerings to

Raka if the sacrificer desires a son,

Sinivali for abundant cattle, or

Kuhu for general prosperity".

p. 30

for the fire-pot : "Females with Uncut Wings (achinnapatrah.)" (Jamison 1996, pp. 63-4, citing Maitrayan.i Samhita 2:7:6)

p. 33

the "Manava S`rauta Sutra [6:1:2:4-12] invokes the Females with Uncut Wings in ... the firing of the pot out of which fire ... will be reborn."

"the maiden Apala ... finds the soma and "presses it to her mouth" ..., and then offers it to Indra to drink. ...

{If aPALa = Athene POLias ('the filly' -- GM 48.1), then Indra = Erekhtheus.}

This is the same Indra who fights ... an Amazonlike woman with one breast and a "rusty vagina," in two Rigvedic passages." [1:133:2-3; 10:155:4]

{The goddess having only one teat is Eka-jat.i.} {The woman's "rusty vagina" would allude to the iron shoon worn by the New Queen in Grimm's Schneewittchen ("SWhAT").}

The Brahman.a commentary on the Apala myth states that she transfers the soma to Indra -- mouth to mouth -- through a kiss." [the word for 'kiss' (/cumba/) being phonetically similar to the word for 'secret signs' (/chumma/) of tantrik recognition (p. 280, n. 2:9)]

{The kiss would be that wherewith the Prince awakened the sleeping Schneewittchen ('Snowdrop').}

p. 33

In the R.c-Veda (10:136:1-7) there is mentioned "an association of a longhaired ascetic (kes`in) with

a female figure Kunamnama, ...

["from the prefix ku- {'evil'} plus ... intensification of ... nam, "to bow ..., submit oneself." (p. 281, n. 2:32).] {This could imply that evil (scil., a spell) is activated by the sorceress's bowing her body towards her victim.}

who has prepared a poison {'drug', not "poison"} for him, which he drinks from a cup ... . This longhaired ascetic ... is also possessed of the power of flight {astral projection, in this case caused by the drug (either wolfbane or henbane)} ... ."

p. 281, n. 2:33

"This is presented as a hymn to the Kes`ins ..., from the seven sons of a seer named Vataras`ana ("Wind-Girt")".

{/Ras`ana/ may be 'bridle, girth', so that /Vata-ras`ana/ can be 'wind-harnessed' (thus, 'wind-energized', such as electric generators charged by wind-rotors).}

"A boy who is suffering from epileptic seizure (s`va-graha, "seizure by the dog") is brought into the gambling hall

through a hole in the roof

{the usual entrance into a Hopi kiva}

and laid upon its gaming {pit} (... a depression in the ground),

{The sacred pit in a kiva is a "sipapu"; that in a Roman (or Etruscan) templum is a "mundus".}

which has already been strewed with a large number of dice.

{In the Bon religion, dice are used primarily for divination.}

The term for gaming {pit} (dyuta-man.d.ala) and the identification of the dice with the gods ... ."

{/man.d.ala/ a 'configuration of deities' : indicating perhaps a netherworld concourse of deities who establish destinies in set configurations}

p. 36

"Agni ... was considered to have been the husband of the Kr.ttikas in the S`atapatha Brahman.a (2.2.1)."

"In the MBh III account, Agni is seduced six times in succession by the goddess Svaha, who has taken the form of six of the Seven R[.]s.is' wives. After each bout of sex, she takes his seed in her hand and, assuming the form

p. 37

of a female kite (garud.i), drops it into a golden basin on the reed-covered summit of White Mountain. The spilled seed heats up to engender Skanda." (MBh 3:215:16)

p. 282, n. 2:57

"In the earliest Tamil version of the Skanda birth myth, six of the sages' wives cook and eat the infant : Shulman [1980], pp. 248-49."

"The Mothers thereafter watch over Skanda like their own child, with

one of the Mothers, Lohitayani {/lohita/ 'iron' + /ayana/ 'travel'},

{Is this goddess identical with the woman having a "rusty vagina" (supra p. 31)?}

the "daughter of the Ocean of Blood who feeds on blood,"

{Blood is rich in iron-compounds.}

standing guard over him with a pike in her hand, and his father taking the form of the goat-headed Naigameya to play with the boy."

"In a final effort ..., Indra pierces Skanda's right side with his thunderbolt. Out of Skanda's wound, a youth bearing a spear and divine earrings emerges : this is Vis`akha. ...

The text continues [quoting MBh 3:217:1-2a] :

Hear now of ... the dreadful youths (kumarakah.) who, born from the thunderbolt's impact on Skanda, cruelly snatch away infants ... .

From the thunderbolt's impact on him were also born mighty Daughters (kanyah. ... mahabalah.).

... The Youths take Vis`akha to be their father, and he ... becomes goat-faced in this role. He stands guard over them in battle, surrounded by the host of Daughters and "all his own sons," while Skanda is ... the joy of the onlooking Mothers.

Now, the Daughters, "born of the Fire called Tapas," appear before Skanda, and he says to them, "What am I to do?"" (MBh 3:217:2b-4a, 6ab)

"the names of these "Mothers of Infants" (s`isumatarah.) are given : Kaki ("She-Crow"), Halima, Rudra, Br.hali ("She Who Makes Strong"), Arya, Palala , and Mitra ("Lady Friend"). [MBh 3:217:9]

Halimaka ("yellowness") is a form of jaundice ..., while Palala ("Sorghum Stalk") is the name of a male demon inimical to children in the Atharva Veda. ... A passage from this Epic's first book [1:60:54-9] states that Kas`yapa {'Tortoise'} and Tamra ("Copper Woman") are the parents of five bird-daughters : Kaki, S`yeni ("Falconess"), Bhasi ("Vulturess"), Dhr.taras.t.ri {/dhartaras.t.ra/ 'goose with black legs & beak' : cf. Latin /rostra/ 'beak of a bird'}, and S`uki ("She-Parrot")."

p. 39

"Arya ... is referred to in the ... Jain Angavijja [capp. 51 & 58 -- cited in Joshi 1986, p. 61] as "the great Arya (Ajja-maha) ", as well as in the ... Manava Gr.hya Sutra [2:13-15 -- cited in Rana 1995, p. 18], which mentions a festival to Arya (ajjamaha), the "mother of

{"The words ariya, ayya, ajja and aje are the distorted versions of the word Arya found in languages such as Pali and Prakriti. It has taken the form of "ji" in Hindi and "ayya" in Telugu, Tamil and Kannada." ("CHA")}

p. 40

Skanda." ... Perhaps the earliest hymn ... to the ... Goddess ... is the twenty-nine-verse "Hymn to Arya," ... the ... Harivams`a's account [appen. 1, no. 8, ll. 1, 2, 4, 35, 39; appen. 1, no. 35, l. 27] of the exchange of Kr.s.n.a's embryo with that of his "sister," who is an incarnation of

the goddess Ekanams`a."

{/Eka-an-ams`a/ 'single portionless one' is a name of goddess Kuhu of new-moon day. /an-ams`a/ may be cognate with the Hellenic goddess-name /An-anke/ 'Necessity'.}

"The gods then choose a queen for Skanda : this is Devasena, who[m] the text [MBh 3:218:43-9] identifies with ... As`a ("Hope"), ... Aparajita ("Unvanquished")".

p. 40

"all Hindus ... worship S.as.t.hi on the sixth day after childbirth ... and ... evidence indicates that this has been the case since at least the Kushan age. ...

p. 41

S.as.t.hi had two principal names ... : "S.as.t.hi of Women in Childbirth" (sutika-s.as.t.hi) and the "Winged S.as.t.hi" (paks.a-s.as.t.hi) ... . ... In Bengal, where her cult is particularly prominent, S.as.t.hi is worshipped as a bird-headed goddess ... . ...

p. 43

S.as.t.hi is closely identified with her cat [Stewart 1995] ...,

{The cat-headed goddess is Carcika : cf. /carcika/ 'musical symphony'. ("Hey, diddle diddle, the cat's got a fiddle" may refer to a fiddle of 6 strings.)}

a trait that closely links her with ... Hariti, the "Kidnapper" of infants".

p. 43

"the six wives of the Seven R[.]s.is who had been impersonated by Svaha in her seduction of Agni, and who had been repudiated by their husbands, are dispatched skyward by Skanda ...;

p. 44

they continue to shine there as the visible stars of the Pleiades, the Kr.ttikas." (MBh 3:219:1-11)

"the "Revati Kalpa" [68; ""Revati Kalpa" constitutes the sixth chapter of the Kalpa Sthana" (p. 285, n. 2:118)] of the circa seventh-century C.E. Kas`yapa Samhita (KS) ... lists over fifty jataharin.is -- "child-snatchers" who enter into pregnant women to steal their progeny -- according to caste and subcaste." (Wujastyk 1999, pp. 10-13)

"women ... either through death in childbirth ... or prior to marriage -- are transformed into haunting demonesses called cur.el, cur.ail, alivantin, or jakhin (a vernacular form of yaks.i ...), that ... kill babies. [Sutherland 1991, p. 145]

In Bengal and Kerala, Joginis and Yaks.is are identified as demonic spirits of women who died in childbirth." (Tambs-Lyche 1997, p. 28 n. 24; Caldwell 1999, p. 182)

p. 46

[quoted from MBh 3:219:23-44 :] "a mighty man, shining like gold, issued forth from Skanda's body to eat the children of mortals. ... By Skanda's leave it became a Seizer ... "Skanda's Epilepsy" (skandapasmara) ["identified with Vis`akha in Sus`ruta Samhita 6.29.9." (p. 285, n. 2:123)].

... Vinata is ... a very violent female Bird Seizer (s`akuni-graha).

Putana ("Stinky") is called a Protectress : know her to be ... the [female] Seizer. There is a female Ghoul (pis`aci) with a fearsome form called S`itaputana ("Cool Stinky"). Horrible to behold, she robs human fetuses. ...

Revati : her [corresponding male] Seizer is Raivata ("Born of Revati"). He too is a great and terrible Seizer who torments young and infant children.

Diti, who is mother of the Daityas, is called Mukhaman.d.ika. Nothing pleases her more than infant flesh in great helpings. ...

Surabhi ... the Mother of Cows ... Together with the bird perching on her {a cowbird, eating ticks off cattle's backs}, ... eats infants [left lying] on the ground.

... Sarama ... the divine Mother of Dogs ... is constantly snatching away human fetuses.

She who is the Mother of Plants has her lair in the karan~ja tree [Pongamia glabra]. ...

These and others ... are verily the eighteen Seizers. ...

When Kadru, taking on a subtle form, enters a pregnant woman, she eats the embryo inside ... . ... The virgin daughter of the Ocean of Blood is remembered as Skanda's nurse. She is worshiped as Lohitayani in the kadamba tree [Nauclea cadamba]. Just as Rudra dwells in men, so Arya dwells in wanton women."

p. 47

"S`iva originally created the ravening Seizers, Mothers, ... to destroy the demon enemies of the gods, but ... when he rendered them invincible ... they began to torment the entire universe, including the gods" (Netra Tantra 19:15-33, 20:4-10).

[p. 286, n. 2:130 : "In his eleventh-century commentary on Netra Tantra (19.69, 70, 80), Ks.emaraja, citing the Kriyakalagun.ottara, gives detailed descriptions of the symptomology of possession by these various Seizers."]

"In the MBh III account, whereas it is the "host of Mothers" who are female Seizers of children, ... Seizers of different sorts ... afflict ... between the ages of sixteen and seventy : these are the" :

__-graha-s

__ Seizers

deva

Divine

pitr.

Father

siddha

[Perfected]

raks.asa

Protection

gandharva

[Odor-eater]

yak.sa

[Gobbler]

pis`aca

Ghoul

"The passage [MBh 3:219:45-58] concludes by stating that Seizers do not touch human devotees of the god named Mahadeva".

"The text goes on to say that the seed from which the boy-god would arise had fallen onto a mountain, giving birth to

two beings named Min~jika and Min~jika,

{If /min~ji-/ be a dialectical variant of /mun~ja-/ 'swamp-rushes', then this couple is perhaps aequivalent to the Avestan first human couple Masyoi and Masyanoi, who are said to have grown out of a plant.}

while the rest had drained into a river of blood, into the rays of the sun, onto the earth, and into trees.

This is of course reminiscent of the Vedic distribution of the stain of Indra's crime ... into earth, women, and trees." (Yajus Veda Taittiriya Samhita 2:5:1)

p. 49

"Revati ("Lady Opulence") ... is identified in the Vedic literature as an asterism (naks.atra)". "Epic,

p. 50

Puranic, and sculptural data identify Revati as the wife of Kr.s.n.a's brother Balarama. These sources make her the daughterof the mountain named Raivata, ... the modern-day Girnar. ... The SS lists ... names ... by which Revati is known : Lamba ("Tall") {'Suspended, Dangling, Pendent', not 'Tall'. (The meaning of the name of S^imso^n's nemesis heroine /Dlilah/ is likewise 'Dangling'.)}, Karala ("Gape-Mouthed" {because astonished?}) ..., and S`us.kanama ("She Who Is Called Parched" {an allusion to heroine Ino? -- if so, Athamas would be Samkars.an.a})."

Following the Tan.d.ya Brahman.a (13.9.17), the KS uses the name Revati in the plural ... . The section in the KS opens by explaining that Prajapati created Revati for the destruction of a demoness called Dirgha[-]jihvi ("Long-Tongue") ... . [p. 286, n. 2:150 : "For the mythology of Dirghajihvi, see O'Flaherty ... (1985), pp. 101-3."] ... As a bird, the KS continues, Revati is "feral, with her folded wings, diamond-hard beak, talons, teeth, and fangs ... her great wings are many-splendored."" [p. 287, n. 2:152 : "Revati ... is also the subject of a Tibetan Tantric work, the [Guhya-agni-cakra] : Filliozat [1937], pp. 145-46."]

p. 51

""Stinky" is very likely so named because she embodies the pustulant sores whose eruptions are symptoms of chicken pox. [Filliozat 1937, p. 61] ... . ... the Bala[-]tantra states that its purported author, Das`a[-]griva ("Ten Throats," i.e. Ravan.a), had sixteen sisters, all of whom were known by the common name of Putana. ... The same work opens by classifying childhood diseases according to four agents of possession : sterile female birds, female birds, male birds, and sterile male birds." [Joshi 1986, pp. 45-6; Filliozat 1937, p. 171]

p. 52

"Bhutavidya ("Esoteric Knowledge of Beings" {/Bhuta-s/ are possessing-spirits, not "Beings" in general}) ... is defined ... as "having ... those whose minds are possessed by ... Seizers, to appease [these] Seizers ... ." Human beings who leave openings, called "shadow cracks" (chayachidran.i) for the Seizers to penetrate become possessed by these ... demons, who ... drive them mad ... . Cracks in the human immune system may be opened by ... straying into the demonic habitats (cremation grounds ..., crossroads ...)". ["These ... demonic habitats were precisely the sites at which Kaula practitioners actively sought possession by these dread demonic beings" (p. 287, n. 2:164).]

[Wujastyk 1999, p. 1, quoting Jefferey & Lyon 1989 :] "pregnant women smell sweet, like a melon, and that is why they attract evil spirits."

"The prime means for combating these seizures of these Seizers is to ... bind (bandh) them ... . ... . ... in the late-third-century C.E. Harivams`a, Putana, called the "nurse of Kamsa," comes to the child "in the shape of a bird (s`akuni)." ... a host of birdlike female divinities found in

p. 53

this [Hari-vams`a] ... include the owl-faced goddess Nidra-Vindhya[-]vasini, who ... inhabits a wood that resounds with the cries of wild cocks and crows. [Humes 1996]

Elsewhere, a number of Harivams`a manuscripts provide two ... lists of Mothers ... . The first of these, a list of eighteen Divine Daughters (devakanyas), describes these as ... "enjoying lymph and marrow {tissues infectable with ailments} ..., having faces of cats and leopards, faces resembling those of elephants and lions ... ." [Harivams`a, appen. 1, no. 24, ll. 87-91, 95-7, p. 191]

The second, a list of female Seizers, names Mukha[-]man.d.i, Vid.ali ("Kitty"), Putana, Gandha[-]putana ("Aromatic Stinky"), S`ita[-]vata ("Cooling Breeze"), Us.n.a[-]vetali ("Hot Vampiress")".

"Putana ... is listed (along with Vid.ali) as a Yogini in the S`rimatottara Tantra [20:211b]. ... The Saddharmapun.d.arika Sutra [cap. 21, l. 30] ... provides a list of mutiple demons that includes ... Epilepsy Demons, and Putanas. The 1131 C.E. Manasollasa, an encyclopedia ... of the Deccan plateau, offers a similar list in its classification of goddesses : ... the Revatis, the S`us.karevatis, the Yoginis, Yoga-Mothers, D.akinis, Putanas, S`akinis, and Mukhaman.d.itas." ( Manasollasa 5:18:966-7) [p. 288, n. 2:176 : "A single goddess named S`us.karevati appears in the Matsya Puran.a (179.65), in which she leads a host of Mothers ... to drink the blood of Andhaka's demon army : Tiwari [1985], p. 111."]

p. 53

divine bitch Sarama : "In the MBh [1:3:1-9] frame account of Janamejaya's snake sacrifice, she curses that king for mistreating her pups, the Sarameyau. She is also present in the Ramayan.a : Vibhis.ana's wife, Sarama, ...

p. 54

offers comfort to the imprisoned Sita. [Hopkins 1915, p. 42] Sarama's presence ... in the Jaiminiya Brahman.a [2:440-2; translated in O'Flaherty 1985, pp. 99-100], as eater of the

"outer membrane of the waters"

{referring, surely, to the caul as membrance enclosing the amniotic fluid}

prepares the way for her role, in MBh III, as a snatcher of human fetuses {foeti}. ... . ... the As.t.anga-hr.daya lists the (male) S`vagraha ("Dog-Seizer") in place of Sarama".

"The sage Vasis.t.ha's wish-fulfilling milch cow (kama-dhenu) is named Surabhi in MBh I.93.8-33; however, elsewhere ... this cow is named Nandini. Nandini, whom Vasis.t.ha's rival Vis`vamitra is attempting to steal, ... excretes armies of outcastes from her every orifice : anus ... and urethra. David Shulman notes [1980, p. 258] that in Tamil Nadu, the shrines of ... goddess Mul.i ("Defective") are guarded by a black cow ... . Mul.i is further identified as an outcaste equivalent of ... goddess Jyes.t.ha [Rao 1914-6, vol. 1, pt. 2, pp. 390, 394]".

"Kadru ("Tawny") is named the Mother of Serpents and Vinata ("Curved"), in Mother of Birds in ... MBh myths ... . ... In fact, ... in the Taittiriya Samhita [6:1:6] ... Kadru and Vinata are both birds. This is ... with parallels found [Knipe 1967, pp. 337-45] in Norse, Greco-Roman, Iranian, and Babylonian sources."

p. 55

"MBh III ... introduces a class of ... female tree deities, called Vr.ddhikas ("Crones") or Vr.ks.akas ("Females of the Tree") ... : [MBh 3:220:16] "... Vr.ddhikas are eaters of human flesh. Those desiring children should worship these goddesses, who are born in trees." [Maha-bharata 3:220:16, in the Kumbhakoanam manuscript] ... Jatakas [50 & 307] describe ... blood offerings made to tree spirits for the birth of children."

p. 56

"Can.d.es`vari ("Our Lady of Fury"),

p. 57

an important Nepali goddess whose temple is located in Banepa at the the eastern edge of the Kathmandu Valley, is said to have arisen from the trunk of a raktacandana (red sandalwood) tree. ... barren women bathe in a pool there in order to conceive." (Desirens 1991, p. 62)

p. 57

"A sorceress named Siddhikari impersonates a tree goddess ... . Seeing ..., she ... calls out : "... Climb up here ...; take your pleasure with me." When the servant climbs up to her,

she embraces him, kisses his mouth, and with her teeth bites off his tongue. ...

{Goddesses who while kissing men bite off the men's tongues are also known in folklore in <arabia.}

Then the sound "lalala" is heard coming from the tree, and the merchant and servant, thinking she is a bhutni, run away." (Katha-sarit-sagara 2:5:101-18)

p. 56

"In much of Rajasthan, ... the khejar.a (Proposis spicagera) ... is ... considered to be the haunt of ... female demons called bhutnis." (Fuller 1992, pp. 112-4)

p. 58

"embodiments of disease symptoms : Skandapasmara, S`itaputana, and Mukhaman.d.ika are ... goddesses ... of ... disease pathology :

p. 59

the cutaneous eruptions so often associated with such deadly diseases as small pox ... chicken pox, measles ... -- are the somatization of their presence. The victim's body ..., his skin set aboil with these goddesses' ... pustules and pox that erupt being so many marks (or eyes, or fiery vaginas) of these goddesses." (Stewart 1995)

p. 62

"the Skanda-Seizers, first found in the ... Kumaratantra of Ravan.a : this is the identification of the female Skanda-Seizer afflicting an infant child on the basis of the day, month, and year in the life of the child. [p. 290, n. 2:226 : "This is a system of twelve Skanda-Seizers, whose names are Nandana, Sunanda, Putana, Mukhaman.d.ika, Kat.aputana, S`akunika, S`us.karevati, Aryaka, Bhusutika, Nirr.ta, Pilipicchika, and Kamuka."] ...

Three parallel systems are found in ... the Tithi[-]d.akini[-]kalpa, ... found in Jammu … . Here, … the fifteen dates of the lunar fortnight are identified with fifteen diseases, with a particular d.akini to be worshiped in each case.”

[p. 290, n. 2:228 : "This is the second text in ... the D.akinikalpa. Texts 1 and 3 ... present similar systems, based on the seven-day week and the twenty-seven lunar mansions (naks.atras) ... . ... Herrmann-Pfandt ... (1997), esp. pp. 53-57 ... . Texts 2 and 3 are forthcoming in the same journal".]

p. 63

"the demoness Hariti ("Kidnapper") ... is accompanied by other female figures named Jara, Jyes.t.ha,

Cula[-]koka, and Maha[-]koka.

[p. 291, n. 2:243 : "Banerjea [1938], p. 108. Koka means "cuckoo" in Sanskrit".]

In different sources she is identified [Tiwari 1985, p. 52] as the consort of the goat-headed Naigames.a ...,

[p. 283, n. 2:62 : "the Naigames.a of Sus`ruta Samhita (SS) 6.37.6 is a male Seizer who harms male children ... . On this, see Winternitz ... (1895)".]

or, much later, of [Strickmann 1996, p. 248] the Tantric deity Ucchis.t.a Gan.es`a.

Hariti may further be indentified with Jataharin.i ("Child-Snatcher"), of whom long descriptions are given in the KS and Markan.d.eya Puran.a. She ... is an agent of miscarriage who feeds on newborn children, whence warnings [Markan.d.eya Puran.a 48:103-4, 107-9] to guard against her in the lying-in chamber. In the sixth-century [Chr.E.] Hars.acarita (4.6-7), she is mentioned in the context of ... birth :

[p. 291, n. 2:247 : "the incarnate Jata-matr.-devata surrounded by a troup of dwarfs and deaf people, laughing with upturned faces" (Kane 1918, ucchvasa 4, p. 7; and notes to ucchvasa 4, p. 26)].

in his ... commentary on this work, S`ankara explains that a figure with a cat's face ... was set up in the lying-in chamber." ...

[p. 291, n. 2:247 : "goddess ... Carcika, had the form of a cat : Tiwari [1985], p. 52."]

Hariti began

p. 64

her career as a Yaks.in.i, a female Dryad, named Abhirati : it is only as a result of her depradations that the townsfolk of Rajagr.ha call her "Kidnapper."" [p. 292, n. 2:251 : "Samyuktavasu, recounted in Dhawan [1997], p. 189 n. 146."]

"In the [Rama-ayan.a] [1:24:5-13 & 1:25:4-14 -- Goldman 1984, vol. 1, pp. 172-5] ... is ... Tad.aka/ Tat.aka ..., a beautiful female Dryad who ... has been transformed ito a man-eating Protectress with a hideous face."

"Kuvan.n.a {*/ku-varn.a/ 'evil color'}, the Yakkhin.i (the Pali form of Yaks.in.i) queen of the island of Ceylon {Simhala},

first appears as a bitch and then

{Hekabe "was turned into a hound (Eur. Hec. 1259ff.)." ("T", n. 39)} {Polu-mestor prophesied to Hekabe that she should be metamorphosed into a bitch, and should leap into the sea at a place called Kuno-seme. (Strab. p 595 ; Thuc. viii. 104.) According to Ovidius (Met. xiii. 423-575), this prophecy was fulfilled in Thraike. ("H")}

as an alluring maiden ..., in the Mahavamsa [7:9-37 -- Geiger 1912, pp. 54-7]."

p. 64

"In ... the Valahassa Jataka [# 196], female Dryads entice shipwrecked men into their city, bind them with magic chains, and force them to marry them, before eating some of their number.

The Telapatta Jataka [# 96] relates that female Dryads entice men passing through a forest and "seduce them with the charm of their wanton beauty. But ... they have [sexual] intercourse with them and then they kill them and eat them while the blood flows."" (Sutherland 1991, p. 138-9)

p. 65

[quoted from the Jayaddisa Jataka (# 513) – discussed in Sutherland 1991, p. 142] "a female Dryad ... grabbing the child in full view of the queen ... crunched and devoured it ... . In this fashion she killed another of the queen's newborns, but in her attempt to devour a third, … not having time to devour the child, she hid him in a sewer. The infant, thinking she was his mother, took her breast in his mouth and she conceived a love for this son, and went to the cemetery where she placed him in a rock cave and looked after him."

p. 65

"Perching herself atop a karimpana (a type of palm) tree, the Yaks.i kills men and drinks their blood." (Caldwell 1999, p. 141)

"the Guhya[ka]s (the "Secretive Ones") ... have the special task of supporting Kubera's flying palace : they are possessed of the power of flight" (Coomaraswamy 1928-31, vol. 1, pp. 8-9).

p. 66

"the Bhuta[-]d.amara Tantras, of which there exist both Buddhist {Vajra-yana} and Hindu {Kaula} versions ..., recommend ... yoginisadhana. Both sources contain mulptiple lists of eight goddesses ... . In one case, parallel lists from the Hindu and Buddhist B[hD]T call the objects of the yoginisadhana Yaks.in.is rather than Yoginis." (Bu:hnemann 2000, p. 41)