Yakshinis or Yakshis (Sanskrit: यक्षिणी, IAST: Yakṣinī or Yakṣī, Prakrit: Yakkhiṇī or Yakkhī) are a class of female nature spirits in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religious mythologies that are different from Devas and Asuras and Gandharvas or Apsaras.

Yakshinis and their male counterparts, the Yakshas, are one of the many paranormal beings associated with the centuries-old sacred groves of India.

The three sites of Bharhut, Sanchi, and Mathura, have yielded huge numbers of Yakshi figures, most commonly on the railing pillars of stupas.

The list of thirty six yakshinis given in the Uddamareshvara Tantra is as follows, along with some of the associated legends:[5] In Jainism, there are twenty-five yakshis, including Panchanguli, Chakreshvari, Ambika, and Padmavati, who are frequently represented in Jain temples.

The names according to Tiloyapannatti (or Pratishthasarasangraha) and Abhidhanachintamani are: In the literature and folktales of Kerala, yakshis are generally not considered benevolent.

According to Ramakrishnan's novel, adult yakshis are required to enter the land of the living once a year to feed on the blood of human men.

[3] According to a legend from Thekkalai, next to Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu, a pair of beautiful sisters named Chempakavally and Neelapilla turned into vengeful yakshis after becoming victims of an honor killing by their father.

Immediately after her death, Chiruthevi was reborn as a yakshi in the village of Kanjirottu, where she magically transformed into a beautiful woman mere moments after her birth.

Her frenzy only subsided after she made a deal with her brother Mangalathu Govindan, a close associate of Kunjuraman and a great upāsaka (follower) of Lord Balarama.

Sundara Lakshmi, an accomplished dancer and consort of HH Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma, was an ardent devotee of Kanjirottu Yakshi Amma.

The Kanjirottu yakshi is now said to reside in Vault B of Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, which supposedly also contains an enormous treasure.

In China, Taiwan, and Japan yakshni are famous and well-known, such as Hariti, one of the Twenty-Four Protective Deities who are venerated as defenders of the Buddhist dharma in Mahayana Buddhism.