Yama
Yama, god of death and hell, is regent of the south, or lower world, in which the Hindoos place the infernal regions. The Indian representations of this deity are fanciful in the extreme. He is many-armed and mighty, and is worshiped, or feared, under various names. There is a very interesting legend about him in Professor Wilson's story of the Ramayana in our department of Legends, to which the reader is referred. Yama will outlive all the other gods, and will finally destroy Kal (Time) himself. Yama is often identified with Siva, as the destroyer.
Yama, the judge of men and king of the unseen world, was the son of Vivasvat (the Sun) and Saranya, the daughter of Tvastri; and was born before Saranya had become afraid of her glorious husband. He was twin-brother of Yami, and, in the opinion of Professor Roth, they were regarded as the primeval pair from whom the human family has sprung. In another verse of the Rig-Veda, they are described as the offspring of the heavenly choristers, the Gandharvas. As there were no others to perpetuate the race, Yami entreated Yama to become her husband. She urged the fact that Tvastri had formed them as man and wife in the womb; and therefore it was useless for him to refuse her request, as none can act contrary to the ordinances of Tvastri. But Yama was firm, and resisted her overtures on the ground that it was monstrous for those who are preachers of righteousness to act unrighteously.
Yama was the first of mortals who died, and, having discovered the way to the other world, is the guide of those who depart this life, and is said to conduct them to a home which is made secure for them for ever. He is a king, and dwells in celestial light in the innermost sanctuary of heaven. He grants bright homes to the pious who dwell with him.
In the Rig-Veda, Yama is nowhexe-jepreseoted (as he is in the later mythology) as having anything to do with the punishment of the wicked. Nevertheless he is still to some an object of terror. He is said to have two insatiable dogs, with four eyes and wide nostrils, which guard the road to his abode, and which the departed are advised to huny past with all possible speed. These dogs are said to wander about among men as messengers, no doubt for the purpose of summoning them to the presence of their master, who in another place is identified with death, and is described as sending a bird as the herald of doom.
When the remains of the deceased have been placed upon the funeral pile, and the process of cremation has commenced, Agni, the god of Fire, is prayed not to scorch or consume the departed, not to tear asunder his skin or his limbs, but, after the flames have done their work, to convey to the fathers the mortal who has been presented to him as an offering. Leaving behind on earth all that is evil,and imperfect, and proceeding by the paths which the fathers trod, invested with a lustre like that of the gods, it soars to the realms of eternal light in a car, or on wings, and recovers there its ancient body in a complete and glorified form; meets with the forefathers who are living in festivity with Yama ; obtains from him, when recognised by him as one of his own, a delectable abode, and enters upon more perfect life, which is crowned with the fulfilment of all desires, is passed in the presence of the gods, and employed in the fulfilment of their pleasure.
In this kingdom, over which Yama reigns, friends meet with their departed friends,—husband with wife, children with parents, and together live in a state of blessedness, free from all the evils and infirmities that belong to the present life. And as the gods are described as enjoying all the pleasures that are common to men on earth, there is the clearest evidence that the kingdom of Yama, the abode of the departed, is not at all less sensual than the present world; and when mortals have been privileged to enter this happy land, they become objects of veneration to their descendants still living, and joyfully partake of the oblations they offer to them.
According to the popular ideas now prevailing, Yama is -^represented as a green man, clothed in red garments. He has a crown on his head, and a flower in his hair; is armed with a club, and rides upon a buffalo. He is regularly worshipped once a year; and daily a little water is poured out to him. For a whole month each year unmarried girls present offerings to him in the hope that he will provide them with a husband; and that, having granted this boon, he will not recall his gift, and leave them widows. In his presence the good and evil deeds of the departed are weighed: according to the turn of the scale, the soul goes to heaven or hell. The soul is believed to reach Yama's abode in four hours and forty minutes; consequently a dead body cannot be burned until that time has passed after death.
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