Kubera is no longer worshipped today as he once was in ancient India.
He is the pot-bellied king of the yakshas, and closely related to the rakshasas, and associated with great wealth, often known as the treasurer of the gods. If you go the Reserve Bank of India building in New Delhi, you will find on either side of the gate the image of Yaksha and Yakshini symbolising the wealth generated from industry and agriculture respectively, indicating how yakshas and their king Kubera are closely associated with wealth. On temple walls, we find images of yakshas, strange gnome-like misshapen beasts, very fat, with pot bellies and dwarfish features.
We learn of Kubera for the first time in the Shatapatha Brahmana, a ritual manual explaining how various Vedic yagnas have to be conducted. It is dated to a few centuries before the Buddha, so roughly 2,800 years ago. In it, he is described as the leader of robbers and misshapen gnomes, who live in the forest. But, over time, he becomes a deity, worshipped alongside Shri, the goddess of wealth, who we now know as Lakshmi.
This story is from the February 2018 edition of BBC Knowledge.
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This story is from the February 2018 edition of BBC Knowledge.
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