A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.2187

c5.2187

YAMA. ‘Restrainer.’ Pluto, Minos. In the Vedas Yama is god of the dead, with whom the spirits of the departed dwell. He was the son of Vivaswat (the Sun), and had a twin-sister named Yamī or Yamunā. These are by some looked upon as the first human pair, the originators of the race; and there is a remarkable hymn, in the form of a dialogue, in which the female urges their cohabitation for the purpose of perpetuating the species. Another hymn says that Yama “was the first of men that died, and the first that departed to the (celestial) world.” He it was who found out the way to the home which cannot be taken away: “Those who are now born (follow) by their own paths to the place whither our ancient fathers have departed.” “But,” says Dr. Muir, “Yama is nowhere represented in the Rig-veda as having anything to do with the punishment of the wicked.” So far as is yet known, “the hymns of that Veda contain no prominent mention of any such penal retribution. . . Yama is still to some extent an object of terror. He is represented as having two insatiable dogs with four eyes and wide nostrils, which guard the road to his abode, and which the departed are advised to hurry past with all possible speed. These dogs are said to wander about among men as his messengers, no doubt for the purpose of summoning them to their master, who is in another place identified with death, and is described as sending a bird as the herald of doom.”