Yama

“ To-day my shafts discharged from my mighty bow shall mangle your limbs, even as fire burneth up a heap of cotton. To-day with your persons pierced with sharp shafts, with darts, and javelins, and rishtis and arrows, shall I despatch you all to the abode of Yama. Who shall stay before me, fleet-handed, creating an arrowy shower in the field, and roaring like unto clouds? Formerly in a night-engagement, with my shafts resembling the thunder-bolt and vajra, ye two along with your foremost adherents, were rendered insensible and laid down on the earth by me. But, perhaps, thou hast forgotten it. ”

“ HONOUR the King with thine oblations, Yama, Vivasvan's Son, who gathers men together, Who travelled to the lofty heights above us, who searches out and shows the path to many. 2. Yama first found for us a place to dwell in: this pasture never can be taken from Us. Men born on earth tread their own paths that lead them whither our ancient Fathers have departed. 3. Mitali prospers there with Kavyas, Yama with Angiras' sons, Brhaspati with Rkvans: Exalters of the Gods, by Gods exalted, some joy in praise and some in our oblation. ”

“ Yama is said to have crossed the rapid waters, to have shown the way to many, to have first known the path on which our fathers crossed over.’ It is a perfectly consistent myth-formation, that the solar Yama should become the first of mortals who died and discovered the way to the other world, who guides other men thither and assembles them in a home which is secured to them for ever. ”

“ Therefore thou art called Yama—he that ruleth by decrees. Hear my words, O divine One. It is the duty of Celestials to love all creatures and to award them according to their merit. The wicked are without holiness and devotion, but the saintly protect all creatures and show mercy even unto their enemies.”
Said Yama: “Thy wise words are like water to a thirsty soul. Ask of me therefore a third boon, except thy husband's life, and it will be granted unto thee.”
Savitri said: “My sire, King Aswapati, hath no son. O grant that a hundred sons may be born unto him.” ”

“ Yama is also spoken of as the dispenser of the ambrosia of immortality, which flows from the fruit of the celestial tree in Paradise (Ficus Indica) , and which is known in India as the tree dear to Yama. As king of the spirits of the departed, Yama dwells near the tree. Hel, the Scandinavian goddess of death, has her abode among the roots of Yggdrasill, by the side of one of the fountains. ”

“ In the Puranas, on the other hand, Yama, later called the child of the Sun, is the stern avenger of sin and the god of death and hell. The older conception of Yama, whom the Rig-Veda regards as the offspring of Vivasvat (the rising sun) and Saranyu (the dawn) , may be illustrated by the stanzas:—
"Worship Yama, the son of Vivasvat, with offerings. All men go to him. He takes men of virtuous deeds to the realm of happiness. He clears the way for many. ”

“ Spake Yama, smiling: "Beautiful! thy words Delight me; they are excellent, and teach Wisdom unto the wise, singing soft truth. Look, now! Except the life of Satyavan, Ask yet another—any—boon from me." Sâvitrî said: "Let, then, the pious King, My husband's father, who hath lost his throne, Have back the Raj; and let him rule his realm In happy righteousness. This boon I ask." "He shall have back the throne," Yama replied, "And he shall reign in righteousness: these things Will surely fall. But thou, gaining thy wish, Return anon; so shalt thou 'scape sore ill." ”

“ There in that heaven of his, Yama sits drinking with the gods under a widely spreading tree with large leaves, and there he welcomes the fathers of the human race to share the delights of a land whose every brook runs with honey, whose heavenly cows, that kick not, offer their milk of their own accord, whose pleasures lack nought of the delights of the harem, and whose dwellers never suffer from old age or decay. ”

“ Our fathers of old have traveled the path; it leads every earth-born mortal thither. There in the midst of the highest heaven beams unfading light and eternal waters flow; there every wish is fulfilled on the rich meadows of Yama." Day by day Yama sends forth two dogs, his messengers, to search out among men those who are to join the fathers that are having an excellent time in Yama's company. ”

“ Resolved to go to the other world, the Panchalas and the Kauravas fought with one another for admission into the swelling domains of Yama. Brave warriors, encountering brave rivals, pierced one another with arrows and lances and darts, and quickly despatched one another unto Yama’s abode. Dreadful was the battle that took place between car-warriors and car-warriors who struck one another and caused a fierce flow of blood. Infuriated elephants, encountering infuriated compeers, afflicted one another with their tusks. ”

“ Eitel (p. 173) says:—“Yama was originally the Aryan god of the dead, living in a heaven above the world, the regent of the south; but Brahmanism transferred his abode to hell. Both views have been retained by Buddhism.” The Yama of the text is the “regent of the narakas, residing south of Jambudvipa, outside the Chakravalas (the double circuit of mountains above) , in a palace built of brass and iron. He has a sister who controls all the female culprits, as he exclusively deals with the male sex. ”

“ What, wanton! wilt thou say to men to tempt them? 7. I, Yami, am possessed by love of Yama, that I may rest on the same couch beside him. I as a wife would yield me to my husband. Like car-wheels let us speed to meet each other. 8. They stand not still, they never close their eyelids, those sentinels of Gods who wander round us. ”

“ It does not seem that the souls of the dead have (as in the epic) a stream Vaitaraṇī to cross, though it has been suggested that in X. xvii. 7 ff. Sarasvatī is none other than this river.
Though Yama is associated with gods, especially Agni and Varuṇa, and though there is an obvious reference to his connexion with the sun in the phrase "the heavenly courser given by Yama," still he is never called a god, and this fact lends the greatest probability to the view that he is what he seems to be, the first of men, the first also to die, and so the king of the dead, but not a judge of the departed. ”

“ That Vedic deity who, alone of pre-Vedic powers, still holds his proud place, Yama, the king of departed spirits, varies in the epic according to the period represented. In old tales he is still quite Vedic in character; he takes the dead man's soul off to his own realm. But, of course, as pantheism prevails, and eschatology becomes confused, Yama passes into a shadow, and at most is a bugbear for the wicked. ”

“ A frightful terror, destructive of thy happiness, is before thee! Do thou take prompt steps for achieving thy Emancipation! Soon after death thou art sure to be taken before Yama at his command. For obtaining felicity in the next world, strive to attain to righteousness through the practice of difficult and austere vows. The puissant Yama, regardless of the sufferings of others, very soon takes the lives of all persons, that is of thyself and thy friends. There is none capable of resisting him. ”

“ And as to what thou sayest, O Death, that it is not easy to understand it, there is no other speaker to be found like thee. There is no other boon like this." Yama said, "Choose sons and grandsons who may live a hundred years; choose herds of cattle; choose elephants and gold and horses; choose the wide expanded earth, and live thyself as many years as thou listeth. Or, if thou knowest a boon like this, choose it, together with wealth and far-extending life. Be a king, O Nachiketas! On the wide earth I will make thee the enjoyer of all desires. ”

“ In some places the heads and hands of people were scattered over the ground, and looked like lotus buds and flowers torn from their stalks and strewn about the bare and barren land.
21. There were the Vidyádhara females drowned up to their necks in the slime, and crying in their piteous chimes in one place; and there were the big bodied buffaloes of Yama lying in another, and resembling the huge bodies of dead elephants appearing in dream. (The buffalo of Yama is no less bulky than the Airávata elephant of Indra) . ”

“ But nevertheless Yama is stronger than he. For he is unlimited, being Time itself without beginning or end [8] , and that power, whose nature it is to be unsusceptible of bounds, can no more be exhibited by particular instances than the ceaseless flow of Ganges can be contained in a single jar.
And when the Princess had spoken, she rose up and went out, looking at the King with eyes of sorrow, and the King's heart went with her. But the King and Rasakósha returned to their own apartments. ”

“ To which Time replied: "It is Death who is posted in these affairs. Pray speak to him."
But when they did so, the parrot died at the mere sight of Death. And they were all distressed at seeing the occurrence, so that they said to Yama: "What does this mean?" And Yama said: "It was simply fated that he should die at the mere sight of Death." ”

“ Unlike Indian Yama, who chose the realm of the dead and established his suzerainty in the heavenly world, Yima was the illustrious king who ruled over men and beasts and converted his kingdom into a veritable paradise upon earth. Animals and mankind prospered and grew in such large numbers in his memorable reign, which tradition has subsequently regarded as the Golden Age of Iran, that the country could no longer hold them. Ahura Mazda, thereupon, bade him to lead his overflowing population to migrate southwards, on the way of the sun. ”

“ Said Yama: “A hundred sons will be born unto thy royal sire. Thy boon is granted.... Turn back, therefore, O princess; thou canst not come farther. Long is the path thou hast already travelled.”
Savitri said: “I have followed my husband and the way hath not seemed long. Indeed, my heart desireth to go on much farther. Hear my words, O Yama, as thou dost proceed on thy journey. Thou art great and wise and powerful; thou dost deal equally with all human creatures; thou art the lord of justice.... One cannot trust oneself as one can trust a Celestial ”

“ Only Big Manka—or otherwise Manka the Crocodile—Zoe, and Henrietta—all thirty years old, and, therefore, in the reckoning of Yama, already old prostitutes, who had seen everything, had grown inured to everything, grown indifferent to their trade, like white, fat circus horses—remained imperturbably calm. ”

“ Yama replied. "Thy wish, Blameless, shall be fulfilled. But now go back; Already art thou wearied, and our road Is hard and long. Turn back, lest thou, too, die." The Princess answered: "Weary am I not, So I walk near my lord. Where he is borne, Thither wend I. Most mighty of the Gods, I follow wheresoe'er thou takest him. A verse is writ on this, if thou wouldst hear:— "There is naught better than to be With noble souls in company: There is naught better than to wend With good friends faithful to the end. This is the love whose fruit is sweet, Therefore to bide within is meet." ”

“ Then they went away into the forest to live, and Savitri put away all the robes and jewels of a princess, and set herself to be a faithful and loving daughter to her new parents. Only she could never forget the terrible doom that had been pronounced upon her husband, and she never ceased to bear in mind the secret date on which Narada had said that he would die. For Yama, the God of Death, is the only being in all the worlds, perhaps, who never breaks his word, and "as true as Death" has become such a saying in India, that Yama is held to be also the God of Truth and Faith. ”

“ Pitying his self-delusion, the samanas said: "No mortal man can reach the place where Yama reigns, but some four hundred miles westward lies a great city in which many good spirits live; every eighth day of the month Yama visits the place, and there mayst thou see him who is the King of Death and ask him for a boon."3
The Brahman rejoicing at the news went to the city and found it as the samanas had told him. ”

“ Nityaparinivrita, 'always extinct or quiet,' is Yama, Death. ↑ Identical with Amitâbha; he is the ruler of the blessed dead in the city of Bliss (Sukhâvatî) , and therefore a variety of Yama. His being placed in the west is explainable, because Yama and Varuna in a certain function coincide, and the latter otherwise appears as the ruler of the west. The following worthy with endless name, 'Having past all worldly calamities and emotions,' is another designation of Amitâyus, i.e. he whose life is of unlimited duration. ”

“ The name of Yama is sometimes used in the Rigveda in its primary sense of “twin,” and the chief of the dead actually occurs in this character throughout a hymn (x. 10) of much poetic beauty, consisting of a dialogue between him and his sister Yamī. She endeavours to win his love, but he repels her advances with these words:—
The spies sent by the gods here ever wander,
They stand not still, nor close their eyes in slumber:
Another man thine arms shall clasp, O Yamī,
Tightly as twines around the tree the creeper. ”

“ Such is the Hindu poet’s conception of the court of Yama, the god of departed spirits, a delightful place where there is no lack of sensuous pleasures. He places amongst the attendants in this court “all sinners amongst human beings;” but as, according to Brahmanical theology, there is punishment for the wicked, we may presume that the sinners referred to are only temporary sojourners in this pleasant abode, awaiting their trial and the judgment of Yama upon their deeds. ”