Kubera, God of Wealth — Roots Before the Buddha's Time
Before he became the guardian of Buddhism, Tao Wessuwan bore another name and another story reaching far back into pre-Buddhist times. In the Brahmanic–Hindu world he was Kubera, the god of wealth who held all the treasures of the gods.
Great deities are rarely born overnight.
So it is with Tao Wessuwan. Before he became the guardian deity of Buddhist thought we venerate today, he had a story and a name far older — old enough to reach back before the Buddha arose in the world at all.
In the world of ancient belief in the Indian subcontinent, in the Brahmanic–Hindu tradition rooted deep over thousands of years, he was known by the name Kubera (Sanskrit: Kuvera) — the god of wealth.
Lord of All Treasures
In Hindu belief, Kubera holds a position of the greatest importance: he is the god of riches, the owner and keeper of all the treasures of the gods.
He bears the epithets "Dhanapati" (Lord of Wealth) and "Dhanada" (Giver of Wealth), and he possesses a wondrous treasure called the "Nidhi," a sacred hoard that never runs dry. People of old therefore venerated him to ask for prosperity and abundance, for flourishing in riches and gold.
Did You Know?
This very belief in Kubera as god of wealth is the wellspring of the idea by which Thai people venerate Tao Wessuwan for fortune and riches today. The "god of wealth" dimension that clings to him thus has roots older even than Buddhism itself.
Birth and Lineage
According to Hindu legend, Kubera is the son of a meditation-mastering sage named Vishravas (or Vishrava), who was the son of Pulastya, one of the great sages born of Brahma.
And it is from being the "son of Vishravas" that he gained another important name, which would later become the source of the name "Vessavaṇa" — but the matter of that name is profound and intriguing enough to be kept for a detailed telling in the next chapter.
Form in Ancient Belief
What is interesting is that Kubera's form in original Hindu belief differs entirely from the image of the great, powerful yaksha Tao Wessuwan that we are familiar with.
In ancient Hindu art, Kubera is often portrayed as a short, pot-bellied deity with pale skin, adorned with ornaments and jewels befitting the lord of wealth. Some texts say he has three legs and eight teeth; some give him a human as his mount, or a pair of mongooses at his side that spit out gems as a symbol of treasure flowing without end.
A Point of Interest
The difference — as far apart as sky from abyss — between the "short, pot-bellied Kubera" of Hindu belief and the "great mace-bearing yaksha Tao Wessuwan" of Thai Buddhist belief reflects how, when a belief travels across lands and ages, its sacred image inevitably changes according to the imagination and taste of each culture, even as the essence of the wealth-god and the protector endures.
Guardian of the North
Besides being the god of wealth, Kubera holds another important duty in Hindu belief: he is one of the Lokapālas, the deities who guard the directions of the world.
And the direction in his care is the North.
This duty as guardian of the North would carry over with him into Buddhist thought as well, and become an important station as one of the Four Heavenly Kings, as we will learn in a later part of this book.
A Blood Feud with Ravana
One of Kubera's most famous and dramatic stories in Hindu belief is the conflict with his own half-brother.
That brother was none other than Ravana — known to Thai people as Thotsakan — the demon-king of Lanka, the chief villain of the great epic the Ramayana (Ramakien).
Legend tells that the beautiful city of Lanka was originally the abode of Kubera, but Ravana, mighty and ambitious, drove Kubera out of Lanka, seized the city, and also wrested away the "Pushpaka Vimana," Kubera's wondrous flying chariot, making it his own. Kubera was thus forced to move and build a new city in the land of the North.
A Connection
This shows that even in Hindu belief, Kubera and the yakshas share one bloodline. This is the foundation that explains why, in Buddhist thought, Tao Wessuwan came to be the "king of yakshas," as we told in the previous chapter — his sovereignty over the host of yakshas has a long lineage behind it.
From Ancient Deity to Protector of the Dhamma
When Buddhism arose in the Indian subcontinent, amid a world already full of beliefs in countless gods and non-human beings, many deities whom people had long revered came to be mentioned and given new places within the Buddhist framework of cosmology.
Kubera was one of them. He stepped into Buddhist thought as a great deity devoted to the Dhamma, taking up the duty of protector and guardian of Buddhism. From the god of wealth in Brahmanic belief, he became a virtuous deity who devotes himself to protecting those who keep the precepts.
His original essence — his being the god of wealth, his sovereignty over the host of yakshas, and his duty as guardian of the North — all remained intact, only receiving a new and deeper meaning under the shade of Buddhism.
Before We Go On
We have now come to know his ancient roots under the name Kubera.
But the observant reader will begin to wonder: if his name is Kubera, then why do we call him "Vessavaṇa"? And how are these two names — along with "Vaiśravaṇa," which we sometimes hear — related to one another?
Each of his names conceals a story and a meaning. Some names come from his lineage, some from the land he ruled, and some from the merit he made in past lives.
We will unravel the meaning of these names one by one, in the next chapter.