feminine a female yakkha, a vampire. Their character is usually fierce & full of spite & vengeance, addicted to man- & beast-murder (cp. yakkha 2). They are very much like Petīs in habits. With their names cp. those of the yakkhas, as enumerated under yakkha 4
■ Vin.iii.37 Vin.iv.20 (where sexual intercourse with y. is forbidden to the bhikkhus); SN.i.209 (Piyankara-mātā); Ja.i.240 (as a goat), Ja.i.395 sq.; Ja.ii.127; Ja.iii.511; Ja.v.21 (eating a baby), Ja.v.209 (eaten by a y.); Ja.vi.336 (desirous of eating a child) Vism.121 (singing), Vism.382 (four: Piyankara-mātā, Uttaramātā Phussa-mittā, Dhammaguttā), Vism.665 (in simile) Mhvs.7, Mhvs.11 (Kuvaṇṇā, i.e. bad-coloured); Mhvs.10, Mhvs.53 (Cetiyā); Mhvs.12, Mhvs.21 (Hāritā “Charming” or fr. harita “green” (?)); Dhp-a.i.47; Dhp-a.ii.35, Dhp-a.ii.36 (a y. in the form of a cow, eating 4 people in successive births). Note. A by-form of yakkhinī is yakkhī.
- -bhāva the state of being a yakkhinī Ja.i.240; Ja.ii.128 (yakkhini˚).
fr. yakkha, perhaps corresponding directly to Vedic yakṣiṇī, f. of yakṣin; adj. persecuting, taking vengeance, applied to Varuṇa at RV. vii.884