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A kumbhāṇḍa (Sanskrit) or kumbhaṇḍa (Pāli) is one of a group of dwarfish, misshapen spirits among the lesser deities of Buddhist mythology.

Kumbhāṇḍa was a dialectal form for "gourd", so they may get their name from being thought to resemble gourds in some way, e.g. in having big stomachs. But kumbhāṇḍa can also be interpreted as "pot-egg"; since "egg" (aṇḍa) was a common euphemism for "testicle", the kumbhāṇḍas were imagined having testicles "as big as pots".

The terms kumbhāṇḍa and yakṣa are sometimes used for the same person; yakṣa in these cases is the more general term, including a variety of lower deities.

The kumbhāṇḍas are classed among the Cāturmahārājika deities, and are subject to the Great King Virūḍhaka, Guardian of the South. One of their chiefs is called Kumbhīra.

According to the Dà zhìdù lùn, greedy officers are reborn as kumbhāṇḍhas.

References

1. ^ Agrawala, Prithvi Kumar (1985). "The Kumbhandas: their personification and names". Bhāratī: Bulletin of the College of Indology (16–17). Banaras Hindu University, College of Indology.
2. Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (20 July 2017). "kumbhāṇḍa". The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-15786-3.

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