Hindu

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Hindu

Kubera

The Lord of Wealth

Domain: Wealth, Prosperity & Guardianship
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Element: Earth
Relics of Power: Treasure of the Nine Nidhis

Speak with Kubera

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5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Hindu peoples

Region

Indian subcontinent

Period

c. 1500 BC – present

The Hindu deities have been worshipped for over three thousand years across the Indian subcontinent, from the Vedic hymns to the living Hinduism of today. Billions of devotees dedicate to them temples, festivals such as Diwali and Holi, and daily rituals in the home. It is one of the largest religious traditions still practiced in the world.

Diwali lights up India with oil lamps in honor of Lakshmi, and Holi celebrates spring with clouds of colored powder. At the Kumbh Mela, the largest pilgrimage on Earth, tens of millions bathe in the sacred rivers, and daily puja brings flowers, incense, and food to the altars.

At a glance

Kubera is the majestic Vedic and Puranic god of inexhaustible riches, supreme sovereign of all the mineral treasures and gems hidden in the depths of the Earth, and the imposing guardian Dikpala of the northern quadrant in Hinduism and Jainism. Son of the sage rishi Vishrava and sacred sovereign of the semidivine spirits of fertility and the forests (the benevolent yakshas), he won immortality and divine status through a thousand uninterrupted years of severe ascetic austerities on the slopes of the Himalaya before the creator Brahma. Ruler of the legendary and dazzling golden citadel of Alaka upon the sacred Mount Kailash, he was the founding monarch of the island of Lanka before his tyrannical half-brother Ravana usurped his lands and his magical flying chariot Pushpaka Vimana. He personifies worthy wealth that provides stability for homes and sustains charitable generosity. His glory lies in the justice with which he administers cosmic abundance, guaranteeing economic security and fraternal support to all who work with honesty.

11 min read · Reviewed on September 28, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The bag of jewels, the mongoose, the pot of gold and the north

Family

Parents

VishravaIlavida

Siblings

RavanaKumbhakarnaVibhishana

Kubera

Unions

Bhadra

Children

NalakubaraManigriva

Genealogy according to Atharvaveda 8.10.28; Shatapatha Brahmana 13.4.3.10; Mahabharata, Vana Parva 3.258; Ramayana, Uttarakanda 7.11-15

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Vyasa, Mahabharata. translation: Kisari Mohan Ganguli, 1896.
Valmiki, Ramayana. translation: Ralph T. H. Griffith, 1874.

Studies

Ananda Coomaraswamy, Yaksas. Smithsonian Institution, 1928.
Sukumari Bhattacharji, The Indian Theogony. Cambridge University Press, 1970.

Name and epithets

The Sanskrit divine name Kubera (कुबेर) is traditionally linked by classical Puranic etymologies to the root kumba or ku-tanu, which alludes to his bulging physique, stout bodily build, or his three legs and eight disti…

In the ancient sources

Atharvaveda., c. 1000 BCE.. The most archaic canonical mention of Vaishravana as the chief of the peoples of the hidden spirits of nature. Shatapatha Brahmana., 8th century BCE..

The myths

The Millennial Penance of the Four Fires and the Consecration by Brahma.. In the grand passages of the Mahabharata and of Valmiki's Ramayana, it is told that the young Kubera, desiring to transcend the mortal condition…

Worship and archaeology

Devotional worship and invocation of Kubera constitute one of the most deeply rooted and revered traditions of prophylaxis and of attracting material and spiritual prosperity across the Indian subcontinent, in Nepal and…

How the god was depicted

The classical iconography of Kubera in the red sandstone sculpture of Mathura of the Kushana era, in the monumental reliefs of the caves of Ellora and Elephanta and in the votive bronzes of the Chola dynasty is utterly…

What scholars debate

The Evolution of the Chief of Thieves in the Veda into the Guardian of Cosmic Wealth.. Historians of Vedic religion and eminent Indologists such as J.

After antiquity

In contemporary modern India and in international Asian communities, Kubera remains the most solid and revered symbolic presence of ethical financial prosperity and domestic well-being.

Did you know?

Kubera's numerical magic square (Kubera Yantra, or Kubera Kolam) is composed of the rows 23-28-21, 22-24-26 and 27-20-25, summing exactly to 72 in any row, column or main diagonal.

Codex relic

Treasure of the Nine Nidhis. The nine sacred treasures in his keeping, the inexhaustible source of all the wealth of the world.

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