Typically invoked to protect homes, temples or individuals, guardian spirits are a standard presence in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain iconography. These entities are most prominently represented when shown flanking doorways on buildings or in illustrated manuscripts and are depicted more subtly for individual protection in talismanic pendants and garments. Guardian spirits may sometimes be deities in their own right, such as the god Kubera who often assumes the role of a dvarapala, or doorway guardian, in Buddhist temples. While guardians such as Yakshas and Yakshis are depicted in a stately human form, others have animal or chimeric forms, such as Makaras or the many types of Yali. Fearsome entities such as these — also known as grotesques — are meant to represent the powerful natural forces controlled by the temple deity.
Outside organised religions, guardian spirits also occur in regional or Adivasi folklore, such as the Rakhondars of Goa, Jimmidaarin yaya worshipped by the Gond people and several others. Some deities are considered guardians by virtue of controlling diseases, such as the goddesses Sitala and Mariamma, who, it is believed, protect their devotees from smallpox.
