Legends and their cultural manifestations- the case of the legend of Yakshi in Kerala

Anjana Sukumary ()
Additional contact information
Anjana Sukumary: Mahidol University International College

No 1002970, Proceedings of International Academic Conferences from International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences

Abstract: The state of Kerala lies in the South- West of the Indian peninsula. Kerala has a rich history and folk culture. The stories of Yakshi, the blood sucking, man-eating seductress vampire is very popular among the older and younger generations of Keralites. This paper is an exploration into the legend of Yakshi and how it is demonstrated in the society and culture of Kerala. These legends have influenced Kerala?s art and literature significantly. Numerous stories were written and movies were made with Yakshis as subjects where they were given both sexual appeal and annihilating power. Visual media gave Yakshis a new lease of life by attributing more human characteristics to them. Yakshis are worshipped as deities in some parts of Kerala. The legend of Yakshi is a perfect example of how legends are intertwined with the religion and culture of a society, the reflections of which are manifested in the art and literature.

Keywords: legends; Yakshi; Kerala; culture; art; literature; society (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 1 page
Date: 2015-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 15th International Academic Conference, Rome, May 2015, pages 1079-1079

Downloads: (external link)
https://iises.net/proceedings/international-academ ... =10&iid=173&rid=2970 First version, 2015

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sek:iacpro:1002970

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Proceedings of International Academic Conferences from International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Klara Cermakova ().