The Bhutesvara Yakshis, also spelled Bhutesar Yakshis, are a series of yakshi reliefs on a railing, dating to the 2nd century CE during the time of the Kushan Empire.[1] The reliefs were found in the Bhutesar mound, around the remains of a Buddhist stupa, outside Mathura, and are now located in the Indian Museum in Kolkata,[2] with three pillars, and three more pillars and one fragment (half of a pillar) in the Mathura Museum. They are an important example of Mathura art, of which these and other yakshi figures are "perhaps the best known examples".[3]
The backs of the pillars contain reliefs with scenes from the life of the Buddha, and from Jataka tales about his previous lives.
The Bhutesar mound is one of a row of large mounds originally just outside the city of Mathura, but now well within the modern city. The important, mostly Jain, site of Kankali Tila was two mounds down.[4]