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Vedic Mythology c9: VII. Eschatology

Vedic Mythology c9

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VII. Eschatology

§ 71. Disposal of the Dead

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— In the Vedic hymns there is little reference to death. When the seers mention it, they generally express a desire that it should overtake their enemies, while for themselves they wish long life on earth. It is chiefly at funerals that the future life engages their thoughts. Burial and cremation were concurrent. One hymn of the RV. (10, 16) describes a funeral by burning, and part of another (10, 18¹⁰⁻¹³)¹, one by burial. The ‘house of clay’ is also once spoken of (7, 89¹). Fathers burnt with fire and those not burnt with fire (i. e. buried) are referred to (10, 15¹⁴; AV. 18, 2³⁴). But cremation was the usual way for the dead to reach the next world. The later ritual (cp. AGS. 4, 1) practically knew only this method; for besides the bones and ashes of adults, only young children and ascetics were buried².

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With the rite of cremation therefore the mythology of the future life was specially connected. Agni takes the corpse to the other world, the fathers, and the gods (10, 16¹⁻⁴. 17³). He places the mortal in the highest immortality (1, 31⁷). Through Agni, the divine bird, men go to the highest place of the sun, to the highest heaven, to the world of the righteous, whither the ancient, earliest-born seers have gone (VS. 18, 51—2). Agni Gārhapatya conducts the dead man to the world of righteousness (AV. 6, 120¹). Agni burns his body and then places him in the world of the righteous (AV. 18, 3⁷¹). The Agni that devours the body (*kravyād*) is distinguished from the Agni that takes the offering to the gods (10, 169). Agni is besought to preserve the corpse intact and to burn the goat (*aja*)³ which is his portion (10, 16⁴). A goat is also immolated with the sacrificial horse to go before, as the first portion for Pūṣan, and announce the offering to the gods ere it reaches the highest abode (1, 162²·⁴. 163¹²·¹³). In the ritual (AGS. 4. 2; KŚS. 25, 7¹⁹) the corpse is laid on the skin of a black goat, and when an animal is sacrificed, it is a cow or a goat⁵. During the cremation Agni and Soma are also prayed to heal any injury that bird, beast, ant, or serpent may have inflicted on it (10, 16⁶).

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The dead man was supposed to go with the smoke to the heavenly world (AGS. 4, 4⁷)⁶. The way thither is a distant path on which Pūṣan protects and Savitṛ conducts the dead (10, 17⁴). The sacrificial goat which precedes and announces the deceased to the fathers, passes through a gulf of thick darkness before reaching the third vault of heaven (AV. 9, 5¹·³; cp. 8, 1⁸).

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¹ ROTH, ZDMG. 8, 467—75; cp. BRI. 23—4; V. SCHROEDER, WZKM. 9, 112—3; HOPKINS, PAOS. 1894, p. CLIIII; CALAND, Die altindischen Todten- und Bestattungsgebräuche, Amsterdam 1896, § 49—50. — 2 Roth, ZDMG. 9, 471; Max Müller, ibid. 1—lxxxii; HRI. 271—3. — 3 *Aja* is by some taken to mean the ‘unborn’ (*a-ja*) part. — 4 Hillebrandt, ZDMG. 37, 521. — 5 MM., ZDMG. 9, iv. v. xxx. xxxii. — 6 Cp. Chānd. Up. 5, 103; Bṛhadār. Up. 6, 1 19. — 7 Weber, IStr. 1, 66; Hillebrandt, ZDMG. 40, 711; ORV. 586—7. — 8 Roth, FaB. 98—9; Bloomfield, AJP. 11, 355; 12, 416.

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The dead man was provided with ornaments and clothing for use in the next life, the object of the custom being still understood in the Veda (AV. 18, 4³¹). Traces even survive (RV. 10, 18⁸·⁹) which indicate that his widow and his weapons were once burnt with the body of the husband⁷. A bundle of faggots (*kūdī*) was attached to the corpse of the departed to wipe out his track and thus to hinder death from finding its way back to the world of the living (AV. 5, 19¹² cp. RV. 10, 18². 97¹⁶)⁸.

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§ 72. The Soul. — Fire or the grave are believed to destroy the body only. But the real personality of the deceased is regarded as imperishable. This Vedic conception is based on the primitive belief that the soul was capable of separation from the body, even during unconsciousness, and of continued existence after death. Thus in a whole hymn (10, 58), the soul (*manas*) of one who is lying apparently dead is besought to return from the distance where it is wandering. There is no indication in the Vedas of the later doctrine of transmigration; but in a Brāhmaṇa the statement occurs that those who do not perform rites with correct knowledge, are born again after their decease and repeatedly become the food of death (ŚB. 10, 4, 3¹⁰). Besides *prāṇa*, ‘respiration’, and *ātman*, ‘breath’ (several times the express parallel of *vāta*, ‘wind’), the usual terms denoting the animating principle are *asu*, ‘spirit’, expressing physical vitality (1, 113¹⁶. 140⁸), even of animals (AB. 2, 6), and *manas*, ‘soul’, as the seat of thought and emotion, which already in the RV. (8, 89⁵) seems to be regarded as dwelling in the heart (*hṛd*)¹. Many passages, especially in the AV., show that life and death depend on the continuance or departure of *asu* or *manas*; and the terms *asunīti*, *asunīta*, ‘spirit-leading’ refer to the conduct by Agni of the souls of the dead on the path between this and the other world (10, 15⁴. 16²)². Funeral ritual texts never invoke the *asu* or *manas* of the deceased, but only the individual himself as ‘father’, ‘grandfather’, and so forth. Hence the soul is not a mere shadow, but is regarded as retaining its personal identity. Though men obtain immortality only after parting from the body (ŚB. 10, 4, 3⁹), the corpse plays an important part in the myth of the future state, which is corporeal. For the body shares in the existence of the other world (10, 16⁵; AV. 18, 2²⁶). A body, however, from which all imperfections are absent (AV. 6, 120³), can hardly have been regarded as a gross material body, but rather as one refined by the power of Agni (cp. 10, 16⁶), something like the ‘subtile’ body of later Indian speculation. An indication of the importance of the corpse in connexion with the future life, is the fact that the loss of a dead man’s bones, which according to the Sūtras were collected after cremation, was a severe punishment (ŚB. 11, 6, 3¹¹; 14, 6, 9²⁸). In one passage of the RV. (10, 16³) the eye of the dead man is called upon to go to the sun and his breath (*ātmā*) to the wind. But this notion, occurring in the midst of verses which refer to Agni as conducting the deceased to the other world, can only be an incidental fancy, suggested perhaps by the speculations about Puruṣa (10, 90¹³), where the eye of the latter becomes the sun and his breath the wind. In the same passage (also in 10, 58⁷) the soul is spoken of as going to the waters or the plants, a conception which perhaps contains the germ of the theory of metempsychosis³.

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Proceeding by the path which the fathers trod (10, 14⁷), the spirit of the deceased goes to the realm of eternal light (9, 113⁷), being invested with lustre like that of the gods (AV. 11, 1³⁷), in a car or on wings (AV. 4, 34⁴), on the wings with which Agni slays the Rakṣases (VS. 18, 52). Wafted upward by the Maruts, fanned by soft breezes, cooled by showers, he recovers his ancient body in a complete form (AV. 18, 2²¹⁻⁶), and glorified meets with the fathers who revel with Yama in the highest heaven (10, 14⁸. ¹⁰. 154⁴·⁵). This is spoken of as a return home (*astaṁ*: 10, 14⁸). From Yama he obtains a resting place (10, 14⁹), when recognized by Yama as his own (AV. 18, 2³⁷).

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According to the ŚB., the ordinary belief is that the dead leaving this world pass between two fires, which burn the wicked but let the good go by⁴. The latter proceed, either by the path leading to the Fathers or by that leading to the sun (ŚB. 1, 9, 3², &c.)⁵. In the Upaniṣads there are two paths for those who know the Absolute, the one (as a consequence of complete knowledge) leading to Brahma, the other to the world of heaven, whence after the fruit of good works has been exhausted, the spirit returns to earth for rebirth. Those ignorant of the ‘Self’, on the other hand, go to the dark world of evil spirits or are reborn on earth like the wicked⁶.

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¹ ORV. 525. —

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² The AV. is already acquainted with the breaths or vital airs familiar to post-Vedic literature: HRI. 153. —

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³ BRI. 23. —

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⁴ Cp. Kuhn, KZ. 2, 318. —

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⁵ Weber, ZDMG. 9, 237; IStr. 1, 20—1; OST. 5, 314—5; SVL. 121; HRI. 206. —

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⁶ HRI. 227.

§ 73. Heaven

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The abode where the Fathers and Yama dwell, is situated in the midst of the sky (10, 15¹⁴), in the highest heaven (10, 14⁸), in the third heaven, the inmost recess of the sky, where is eternal light (9, 113⁷⁻⁹). The AV. also speaks of it as the highest (11, 4¹¹), luminous world (4, 34²), the ridge of the firmament (18, 2⁴⁷), the third firmament (9, 5¹·⁸; 18, 4³), and the third heaven (18, 2⁴⁸). In the MS. (1, 10¹⁸; 2, 3⁹) the abode of the Fathers is said to be the third world¹. The abode of the Fathers is in the RV. also spoken of as the highest point of the sun (9, 113⁹). The Fathers are united with or guard the sun (10, 107². 154⁵), or are connected with the rays of the sun (1, 109⁷; cp. ŚB. 1, 9, 3¹⁰)², and suns shine for them in heaven (1, 125⁶). They are connected with the step of Viṣṇu (10, 15³), and pious men are said to rejoice in the dear abode, the highest step of Viṣṇu (1, 154⁵). As Viṣṇu took his three steps to where the gods are exhilerated³, so the sun follows the Dawn to where pious men offer sacrifice⁴.

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⁴ Windisch, FaB. 118. —

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Stars are also said to be the lights of virtuous men who go to the heavenly world (TS. 5, 4, 1³; ŚB. 6, 5, 4⁸), and ancient men, especially the seven Ṛṣis, besides Atri and Agastya, are said to have been raised to the stars (TA. 1, 11, 1²)⁵.

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² JAOS. 16, 27. —

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⁵ Weber, Nakṣatra 2, 269; KRV. note 286.

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The RV. mentions a tree beside which Yama drinks with the gods (10, 135¹). This according to the AV. (5, 4³) is a fig-tree where the gods abide in the third heaven (no mention being made of Yama).

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¹ PVS. 1, 211. —

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³ Cp. Macdonell, JRAS. 27, 172. —

§ 74

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The most distinct and prominent references to the future life are in the ninth and tenth books of the RV., but it is also sometimes referred to in the first. Heaven is regarded as the reward of those who practise rigorous penance (*tapas*), of heroes who risk their lives in battle (10, 154²⁻⁵), but above all of those who bestow liberal sacrificial gifts (ib.³; 1, 125⁵; 10, 107²). The AV. is full of references to the blessings accruing to the latter.

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In heaven the deceased enter upon a delectable life (10, 14⁸. 15¹⁴. 162·⁵), in which all desires are fulfilled (9, 113⁹·¹¹), and which is passed among the gods (10, 14¹⁴), particularly in the presence of the two kings Yama and Varuṇa (10, 14⁷). There they unswervingly overcome old age (10, 27²¹). Uniting with a glorious body they are dear and welcome to the gods (10, 14⁸. 16⁵. 56¹). There they see father, mother, and sons (AV. 6, 120³), and unite with wives and children (AV. 12, 3¹⁷). The life is free from imperfections and bodily frailties (10, 14⁸; AV. 6, 120³). Sickness is left behind and limbs are not lame or crooked (AV. 3, 28⁵). It is often said in the AV. and ŚB. that the deceased are in that world complete in body and limbs¹.

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The dead are in the RV. often spoken of in general terms (*madanti*, *mādayante*) as enjoying bliss (10, 14¹⁰. 15¹⁴, &c.). The most detailed account of the joys of the life in heaven is given in RV. 9, 113⁷⁻¹¹. There are eternal light and swift waters; there movement is unrestrained (cp. TB. 3, 12, 2⁹); there is spirit food and satiety; there joy, glee, gladness, and the fulfilment of all desires. The joys here indefinitely referred to, are later explained to be those of love (TB. 2, 4, 6⁶ cp. ŚB. 10, 4, 4⁴); and the AV. (4, 34²) states that in the heavenly world there is abundance of sexual gratification. According to the ŚB.' the joys of the Blest are a hundred times as great as the highest on earth (14, 7, 1³²⁻³). In the heaven of the Blest, the RV. further says, the sound of the flute and of songs is heard (10, 135⁷)²; Soma, ghee, and honey flow for them (10, 154¹). There are ponds filled with ghee and streams flowing with milk, honey, and wine (AV. 4, 34⁵.⁶; ŚB. 11, 5, 6⁴). There are at hand bright, many-coloured cows yielding all desires (*kāmadughāḥ*: AV. 4, 34⁸). There are neither rich nor poor, neither powerful nor oppressed (AV. 3, 29³). To the celestial life of the Blest in the Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas corresponds in the Upaniṣads the lower and transient bliss of the heaven of the gods which is followed by rebirth, only those who know the truth attaining to immortality and the changeless joy of unending peace by absorption into the world-soul³. Thus the life of the righteous dead in heaven was clearly regarded as one of indolent, material bliss, in which freed from all frailties they were united with the gods, and which was devoted to music, drinking, and sensual joys (such as the gods themselves are occasionally alluded to as indulging in: cp. 3, 53⁶).

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Heaven is a glorified world of material joys as pictured by the imagination not of warriors but of priests⁴. It is the world of the righteous (10, 16⁴), where righteous and godly men, familiar with rites (*ṛta*) dwell in bliss⁵. There they are united with what they have sacrificed and given (*iṣṭāpūrta*)⁶, especially reaping the reward of their pious gifts to priests (10, 154³ &c.)⁷. In the Brāhmaṇas it is said that those who sacrifice properly above all attain union and identity of abode with the sun (*āditya*) and with Agni, but also with Vāyu, Indra, Varuṇa, Bṛhaspati, Prajāpati and Brahmā (ŚB. 2, 6, 4⁸; 11, 4, 4²¹. 6, 2²·³; TB. 3, 10, 11⁶). A certain sage is described as having through his knowledge become a golden swan, gone to heaven, and obtained union with the sun TB. (3, 10, 9¹¹). In the TS. (6, 6, 9²) the notion occurs that a man by the performance of certain rites can reach heaven without dying (*jīvan*)⁸.

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One who reads the Veda in a particular way is said to be freed from dying again and to attain identity of nature (*sātmatā*) with Brahmā (ŚB. 10, 5, 6⁹). As a reward for knowing a certain mystery a man is born again, in this world (ŚB. 1, 5, 3¹⁴). Thus we have in the ŚB. the beginnings of the doctrine of retribution and transmigration. That doctrine (as well as the doctrine of hell) is not only to be found in the earliest Sūtras⁹, but appears fully developed in the later Brāhmaṇa period, that is to say, in the oldest Upaniṣads, the Chāndogya, the Bṛhadāraṇyaka, and especially the Kaṭha Upaniṣad¹⁰. In the latter Upaniṣad the story is related of Naciketas, who pays a visit to the realm of Death and is told by the latter, that those who have not sufficient merit for heaven and immortality, fall again and again into the power of death and enter upon the cycle of existence (*saṃsāra*), being born again and again with a body or as a stationary object. He who controls himself reaches Viṣṇu's highest place. On the other hand, there is no hell for those not found worthy¹¹.

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¹ References in OST. 5, 315; cp. AIL. 411; HRI. 205. —

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² At the sacrifice to the Manes music was performed, lutes (*vīṇā*) being played (KS. 84, 8). —

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³ HRI. 239. —

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⁴ ORV. 532. —

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⁵ 1, 115^2. 154^5; 10, 15^1. 174. 154^{2-5}; AV. 6, 95^1. 120^3; VS. 15, 50. —

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⁶ WINDISCH, FaB. 115—8. —

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⁷ For references to the same idea in the AV. see OST. 5, 293, note 433; cp. IStr. 1, 20 ff. —

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⁸ WEBER, ZDMG. 9, 237 ff.; OST. 5, 317; HRI. 204. —

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⁹ HRI. 175. —

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¹⁰ HRI. 145, note 4; cp. v. SCHROEDER, Indiens Litt. u. Kultur 245; GARBE in this encyclopedia 3, 4, p. 15. —

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¹¹ Origin of the myth, TB. 3, 11^8; cp. SVL. 10, n. 1; BRI. 78.

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§ 75. Hell. — If in the opinion of the composers of the RV. the virtuous received their reward in the future life, it is natural that they should have believed at least in some kind of abode, if not in future punishment,¹ for the wicked, as is the case in the Avesta². As far as the AV. and the Kaṭha Upaniṣad are concerned, the belief in hell is beyond doubt. The AV. (2, 14^3; 5, 19^3) speaks of the house below, the abode of female goblins and sorceresses, called *nāraka loka*³, in contrast with *svarga loka*, the heavenly world, the realm of Yama (12, 4^). To this hell the murderer is consigned (VS. 30, 5). It is in the AV. several times described as 'lowest darkness' (8, 2^ &c.), as well as 'black darkness' (5, 30^) and 'blind darkness' (18, 3^3). The torments of hell are also once described in the AV. (5, 19) and with greater detail in the ŚB. (11, 6, 1)⁴; for it is not till the period of the Brāhmaṇas that the notion of future punishment appears plainly developed⁵. The same Brāhmaṇa further states that every one is born again after death and is weighed in a balance⁶,, receiving reward or punishment according as his works are good or bad (ŚB 11, 2, 7^; cp. 12, 9, 1^1). This idea is also Iranian.⁷ ROTH⁸ favours the view that the religion of the RV. knows nothing of hell, the wicked being supposed to be annihilated by death. Evidence of the belief in some kind of hell is, however, not altogether wanting in the RV. Thus, 'this deep place' is said to have been produced for those who are evil, false, and untrue (4, 5^5). Indra-Soma are besought to 'dash the evil-doers into the abyss (*vavre*), into bottomless darkness, so that not even one of them may get out' (7, 104^3); and the poet prays that 'she (the demoness) who malignantly wanders about like an owl concealing herself, may fall into the endless abysses' (ib. ^17), and that the enemy and robber may lie below all the three earths (ib. ^). But such references are few and the evidence cannot be said to go beyond showing belief in a hell as an underground darkness. The thoughts of the poets of the RV., intent on the happiness of this earth, appear to have rarely dwelt on the joys of the next life, still less on its possible punishments⁹. The doctrine of the Brāhmaṇas is that after death, all, both good and bad, are born again in the next world and are recompensed according to their deeds (ŚB. 6, 2, 2^; 10, 6, 3^1), but nothing is said as to the eternity of reward or punishment¹⁰. The notion also occurs there that those who do not rightly understand and practise the rites of sacrifice, depart to the next world before the natural term of their terrestrial life (ŚB. 11, 2, 7^).

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The idea of a formal judgment to which all the dead must submit, seems hardly traceable to the Vedic period. One or two passages of the RV. in which reference to it has been found¹¹, are too indefinite to justify such an interpretation. In the TA. (6, 5^) it is said that the truthful and untruthful are separated before Yama, but that he acts in the capacity of a judge, is not implied¹².

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That the belief in a hell goes back even to the Indo-European period, has been argued by WEBER¹³ on the strength of the equation Bhṛgu = φλεγύαι¹⁴ and the fact that the former is described in the ŚB. as sent by his father Varuṇa for pride to see the tortures of hell, and the latter are condemned for pride to undergo severe tortures in hell. But the similarity of the two legends is probably only a coincidence, as belief in the torments of hell seems to be a later development in India¹⁵.

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¹ Zimmer and Scherman, but Hopkins considers this conclusion pedantic. —

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² Roth, JAOS. 3, 345; Geldner, FaW. 22, thinks that hell is directly referred to in RV. 10, 106 by the word *vīci*. —

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³ *Naraka* in AV. and Brāhmaṇas: Whitney, JAOS. 13, civ. —

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⁴ Weber, ZDMG. 9, 240 ff. —

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⁵ HRI. 175. —

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⁶ Weber, ZDMG. 9, 238; OST. 5, 314—5. —

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⁷ Jackson, Trans. of the 10th Or. Congress 2, 67—73. —

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⁸ Roth, JAOS. 3, 329—47; cp. also Weber, ZDMG. 9, 238 f. —

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⁹ Cp. AIL. 418 ff.; Scherman, Romanische Forschungen 5, 569 ff.; SVL. 122 ff.; KRV. n. 287 a; ORV. 538 ff.; HRI. 147. —

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¹⁰ Weber, ZDMG. 9, 237—43. —

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¹¹ SVL. 152—3. —

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¹² ORV. 541—2. —

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¹³ ZDMG. 9, 242. —

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¹⁴ KHF. 23; WVB. 1894, p. 3. —

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¹⁵ Cp. Jaiminīya Br. ed. Burnell I, 42—4; Oertel, JAOS. 15, 234—8; SVL. 5—8; Spiegel, Eranische Altertumskunde 1, 458; HRI. 206.

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§ 76. The Pitṛs. — The blessed dead who dwell in the third heaven are called Pitṛs or Fathers. By this term are generally meant the early or first ancestors (10, 15^8. 10), who followed the ancient paths, seers who made the paths by which the recent dead go to join them (10, 14^2. 7. 15). They are connected with the (third) step of Viṣṇu (10, 15^3 cp. 1, 154^5). Two hymns of the RV. are devoted to their praise (10, 15. 54).

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Their different races are mentioned by name as Navagvas, Vairūpas, Aṅgirases, Atharvans, Bhṛgus, Vasiṣṭhas (10, 14^4-6. 15^8), the last four being identical with the names of priestly families, to whom tradition attributed the composition of the AV.¹ and of books II and VII of the RV. Among these the Aṅgirases are particularly associated with Yama (10, 14^3. 5). The Pitṛs are spoken of as lower, higher, and middle, as earlier and later, and though not all known to their descendants, they are known to Agni (10, 15^1. 2. 13). The AV. speaks of the Pitṛs as inhabiting air, earth, and heaven (AV. 18, 2^49 cp. RV. 10, 15^2).

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The ancient fathers themselves once offered the Soma libation (10, 15^8). They revel with Yama (10, 14^10 cp. 135^1; AV. 18, 4^10), and feast with the gods (7, 76^4). Leading the same life as the gods, they receive almost divine honours. They come on the same car as Indra and the gods (10, 15^10). They are fond of Soma (*somya*: 10, 15^1. 5 &c.) and sitting on the sacrificial grass to the south, they drink the pressed draught (ib. 5. 6). They thirst for the libations prepared for them on earth, and are invited to come with Yama, his father Vivasvat, and Agni, and to eat the offerings along with Yama (ib. ^8-11. 14^4. 5). Arriving in thousands they range themselves in order on the sacrificial ground (10, 15^10. 11). When the Pitṛs come to the sacrifice, evil spirits sometimes intrude into their society in the guise of friends according to the AV. (18, 2^28).

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The Fathers receive oblations as their food, which in one passage (10, 14^3) is referred to with the term *svadhā* as contrasted with *svāhā*, the call to the gods²; so too in the later ritual the portion of the gods at the daily pressings was strictly distinguished from that of the Pitṛs (ŚB. 4, 4, 22). They receive worship, are entreated to hear, intercede for and protect their votaries, and invoked not to injure their descendants for any sin humanly committed against them (10, 15^2. 5. 6 cp. 3, 55^2). Their favour is implored along with that of the dawns, streams, mountains, heaven and earth, Pūṣan and the Ṛbhus (6, 52^4. 75^10; 7, 35^12; 1, 106^3). They are besought to give riches, offspring, and long life to their sons (10, 15^7. 11; AV. 18, 3^14. 4^62), who desire to be in their good graces (10, 14^6). The Vasiṣṭhas collectively are called upon to help their descendants (7, 33¹ cp. 10, 15⁸); and individual ancestors, as Turvaśa, Yadu, and Ugrādeva, are invoked (1, 36¹⁸).

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The Fathers are immortal (AV. 6, 41³) and are even spoken of as gods (10, 56⁴)³. In the Aṅgirases and similar groups the divine character is combined with that of ancient priests. Cosmical actions like those of the gods are sometimes attributed to the Fathers. Thus they are said to have adorned the sky with stars and placed darkness in the night and light in the day (10, 68¹¹), to have found the hidden light and generated the dawn (7, 76⁴ cp. 10, 107¹), and in concert with Soma to have extended heaven and earth (8, 48¹³).

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³ Otherwise HRI. 145, n. 1. —

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Just as the corpse-devouring Agni is distinguished from the Agni who wafts the sacrifice to the gods (10, 16⁹), so the path of the Fathers is distinguished from that of the gods (10, 2⁷. 18¹ cp. 88¹⁵)⁴. Similarly in the ŚB. the heavenly world (*svarga loka*) is contrasted with that of the fathers (*pitṛloka*), the door of the former being said to be in the north-east (ŚB. 6, 6, 2⁴), and that of the latter in the south-east (13, 8, 1⁵)⁵. The fathers are also spoken of as a class distinct from men, having been created separately (TB. 2, 3, 8²).

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¹ The attribution of the AV. to fire-priests, the Atharvans and Aṅgirases, is historically justified, as the cult of fire is still associated with the AV. in the epic: cp. Weber, History of Ind. Lit. 148; HRI. 159. —

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² Haug, GGA. 1875, 94; SBE. 42, 660; Oldenberg, SBE. 46, 162. —

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⁴ Cp. Hiraṇyakeśi Pitṛmedhasūtra, ed. Caland, Leipzig 1896, p. 55; HRI. 145, n. 4. —

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⁵ The South is in general the quarter of the Manes (ŚB. 1, 2, 5¹⁷): this is Indo-Iranian, cp. Kern, Buddhismus 1, 359; Caland, Altindischer Ahnencult, Leiden 1893, p. 178. 180; ORV. 342, n. 2; ZDMG. 49, 471, n. 1; HRI. 190.

§ 77. Yama

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The chief of the blessed dead is Yama. Reflexion on the future life being remote from the thoughts of the poets of the RV., only three hymns (10, 14. 135. 154) are addressed to Yama. There is besides one other (10, 10) consisting of a dialogue between Yama and his sister Yamī. Yama’s name occurs about 50 times in the RV. but almost exclusively in the first and (far oftener) in the tenth book.

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He revels with the gods (7, 76⁴; 10, 135¹). Individual gods with whom he is referred to, are Varuṇa (10, 14⁷), Bṛhaspati (10, 13⁴. 14³), and especially Agni, who as conductor of the dead would naturally be in close relations with him. Agni is the friend (*kāmya*) of Yama (10, 21⁵) and his priest (10, 52³). A god (10, 51¹) and Yama (who by implication are identical) found the hiding Agni (ib.³). Agni, Yama, Mātariśvan are mentioned together as the names of the one being (1, 164⁴⁶). Yama is also mentioned in enumerations of gods including Agni (10, 64³. 92¹¹).

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Thus it is implied that Yama is a god. He is, however, not expressly called a god, but only a king (9, 113⁸; 10, 14 passim), who rules the dead (*yamárājñaḥ*: 10, 16⁹). Yama and god Varuṇa are the two kings whom the dead man sees on reaching heaven (10, 14⁷). Throughout one of the hymns devoted to his praise (10, 14) he is associated with the departed fathers, particularly with the Aṅgirases (vv.³·⁵). With them he comes to the sacrifice and is exhilerated (vv. ³·⁴. 15⁸). Later texts (TA. 6, 5²; Āp. ŚS. 16, 6) make mention of the steeds of Yama, which are described as golden-eyed and iron-hoofed. He is a gatherer of the people (10, 14¹), gives the dead man a resting place (10, 14⁹; AV. 18, 2³⁷) and prepares an abode for him (10, 18¹³).

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Yama’s dwelling is in the remote recess of the sky (9, 113⁸). Of the three heavens two belong to Savitṛ and one to Yama¹ (1, 35⁶ cp. 10, 123⁶), this being the third and highest (cp. § 73). The VS. (12, 63) speaks of him along with Yāmī as being in the highest heaven. In his abode (*sādana*²) which is the home of the gods (*devamāna*) Yama is surrounded by songs and the sound of the flute (10, 135⁷).

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Soma is pressed for Yama, ghee is offered to him (10, 14¹³. ¹⁴), and he is besought to come to the sacrifice and place himself on the seat (10, 14⁴). He is invoked to lead his worshippers to the gods and to prolong life (10, 14¹⁴).

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His father is Vivasvat (10, 14⁵) with whom Saraṇyū is mentioned as his mother (10, 17¹). He is also several times called by the patronymic Vaivasvata (10, 14¹, &c.). This trait is Indo-Iranian, for in the Avesta Vīvaṅhvant, as the first man who pressed Soma, is said to have received Yima as a son³ in reward. In the AV. (18, 2³² cp. 3⁶¹⁻²) Yama is described as superior to Vivasvat, being himself surpassed by none.

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In their dialogue in the RV. (10, 10⁴) Yama and Yamī call themselves children of Gandharva and the water nymph (*apyā yoṣā*)⁴. Yamī further speaks of Yama (v. ³) as the ‘only mortal’. In another hymn Yama is said to have chosen death and abandoned his body (10, 13⁴)⁵. He passed⁶ to the other world, finding out the path for many, to where the ancient fathers passed away (10, 14¹· ²). He was the first of mortals that died (AV. 18, 3¹³). Here ‘mortals’ can only mean ‘men’, though later even gods are spoken of as mortal⁷. As first and oldest of the dead he would easily be regarded as the chief of the dead that followed him⁸. He is called ‘lord of settlers’ (*viśpati*)⁹, ‘our father’ (10, 135¹). Through Yama men come in later texts to be described as descendants of Vivasvān ādityaḥ¹⁰ (TS. 6, 5, 6² cp. ŚB. 3, 1, 3⁴; RV. 1, 105⁹). Even in the RV. Yama seems to be connected with the sun; for the heavenly courser (the sun) ‘given by Yama’ probably means the solar abode granted by Yama to those who become immortal (1, 163² cp. 83⁵).

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Death is the path of Yama (1, 38⁵) and once (1, 165⁴; cp. MS. 2, 5⁶; AV. 6, 28³¹. 93¹) he appears to be identified with death (*mṛtyu*)¹¹. Yama’s foot-fetter (*paḍbīśa*) is spoken of as parallel to the bond of Varuṇa¹² (10, 97¹⁶). Owing to such traits and also to his messengers, Yama must to a certain extent have been an object of fear in the RV. But in the AV. and the later mythology Yama, being more closely associated with the terrors of death, came to be the god of death (though even in the Epic his sphere is by no means limited to hell)¹³. In the later Saṃhitās Yama is mentioned beside Antaka, the Ender, Mṛtyu, Death (VS. 39, 13), and Nirṛti, Decease (AV. 6, 29³; MS. 2, 5⁶), and Mṛtyu is his messenger (AV. 5, 30¹²; 18, 2²⁷, &c.). In the AV. Death is said to be the lord of men, Yama of the Manes (AV. 5, 24¹³⁻⁴), and Sleep comes from Yama’s realm (19, 56¹ &c.).

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The word *yamá* has also the appellative meaning of ‘twin’¹⁴, in which sense it occurs several times in the RV. (generally in the dual masculine or feminine), while *yáma*, which is found a few times in the RV., means ‘rein’ or guide’. Yamá actually is a twin with Yamī in the RV. (10, 10)¹⁵. The sense of ‘twin’ also seems to belong to Yima in the Avesta (Yasna 30, 3). A sister of Yima is mentioned, not in the Avesta, but in the later literature¹⁶ only, as Yimeh, who with her brother produces the first human couple. At a later period of Indian literature, when Yama had become the god of death who punishes the wicked, the name was understood to be derived from *yam*, ‘to restrain’¹⁷, but this derivation is not in keeping with the ideas of the Vedic age.

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A bird, either the owl (*ulūka*) or the pigeon (*kapota*), is said to be the messenger (10, 165⁴ cp. 123⁶)¹⁸ of Yama apparently identified with death. The messenger of Yama and of death would therefore appear to be the same (AV. 8, 8¹¹). Yama’s regular messengers, however, of whom a fuller account is given (10, 14¹⁰⁻¹²), are two dogs. They are four-eyed, broad-nosed, brindled (*śabala*), brown (*udumbala*), sons of Saramā (*sārameya*). They are guardians that guard the path (10, 14¹¹) or sit on the path (AV. 18, 2¹²). The dead man is exhorted to hasten straight past these two dogs and to join the fathers who rejoice with Yama (10, 14¹⁰); and Yama is besought to deliver him to them and to grant him welfare and freedom from disease. Delighting in lives (*asutṛp*) they watch men and wander about among the peoples as Yama’s messengers. They are entreated to grant continued enjoyment of the light of the sun. Their functions therefore seem to consist in tracking out among men those who are to die, and in keeping guard on the path over those who enter the realm of Yama. In the Avesta a four-eyed yellow-eared dog keeps watch at the head of the Cinvaṭ bridge¹⁹, which leads from this world to the next, and with his barking scares away the fiend from the souls of the holy ones, lest he should drag them to hell²⁰. There does not seem to be sufficient evidence for supposing that the two dogs of Yama were regarded as keeping out the souls of the wicked, though it is quite possible that they were so regarded²¹. If, however. RV. 7, 55²⁻⁵ is rightly interpreted by AUFRECHT²², the object of the dogs was to exclude the wicked. In the AV. the messengers of Yama, sent by him among men, are spoken of both in the plural (AV. 8, 2¹¹. 8¹¹) and the dual (AV. 5, 30⁶). Of the two dogs one is described as *śabala*, ‘brindled’ and the other as *śyāma*, ‘dark’ (AV. 8, 1⁹). The word *śabala* has been identified with Κέρβερος²³, but this equation has been called in question²⁴. BERGAIGNE (1, 93) thinks the two dogs are simply another form of Yama (as fire) and Yamī; and the trait of the later mythology, which represents Yama as coming to fetch the dead himself, is regarded by him as primary (1, 92). BLOOMFIELD²⁵ identifies Yama’s two dogs with sun and moon²⁶.

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² This abode (also AV. 2, 127; 18 2⁵⁶. 3⁷⁰), which seems always to mean the world of Yama or the place of burial TA. 6, 7, 2⁶ cp. RV. 10, 18¹³) is understood by PVS. 1, 242 to refer to a ‘chapel of Yama’. A *harmya* of Yama, spoken of in AV. 18, 4⁵⁵, is understood by EHNI

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The most probable conclusion to be drawn from all the available evidence seems to be, that Yama represents a mythological type found among the most diverse peoples, that of the chief of the souls of the departed. This would naturally follow from his being the mythical first father of mankind and the first of those that died. The myth of the primeval twins that produced the human race, Yama and Yamī = Yima and Yimeh²⁷, seems to be Indo-Iranian. The attempt to clear Yama of the guilt of incest in RV. 10, 10, shows that the belief in that incest already existed²⁸. Yama himself may have been regarded in the Indo-Iranian period as a king of a golden age, since in the Avesta he is the ruler of an earthly²⁹, and in RV. that of a heavenly paradise. That Yama was originally conceived as a man, is the view of ROTH and other scholars³⁰. E. H. MEYER, thinking Yamī to be a later creation like Indrāṇī and others, believes that Yama, the twin, originally represented the soul as the *alter ego*³¹. A number of other scholars believe that Yama originally represented a phenomenon of nature. Some think he was a form of Agni³², the sun³³, the parting day³⁴, or the setting sun and thus god of the dead³⁵. HILLEBRANDT³⁶ thinks Yama is the moon, in which dying is typical, and thus the mortal child of the sun and closely connected with the Manes. He considers him, however, to have been a moon-god in the Indo-Iranian period only, but no longer so in either the Avesta or the Veda, where he is merely king of a terrestrial paradise or of the realm of the Blest.

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¹ By LRV. 4, 134 regarded as a hell.

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to mean ‘tomb’ (cp, SVL. 138). — ^3 Cp. Roth, ZDMG. 2, 218. — ^4 MM., with Sāyaṇa, regards these two as identical with Vivasvat and Saraṇyū. — ^5 The interpretation is doubtful, cp. SVL. 146. — ^6 Cp. Roth, Nir. Erl. 138; SVL. 113. — ^7 HRI. 128. — ^8 KHF. 21; SVL. 137. — ^9 *Viśpati* is often said of Agni, once or twice of Indra and Varuṇa. — ^1^0 Cp. Roth, IS. 14, 393. — ^1^1 But the passage may mean ‘Yama (and) Death’. — ^1^2 Cp. Bloomfield, AJP. 11, 354—5. — ^1^3 SVL. 155. — ^1^4 Op. cit. 142, note 1. — ^1^5 Yama and Yamī mentioned together as in heaven: TS. 4, 2, 53; VS. 12, 63; ŚB. 7, 2, 1^1^0; TA. 6, 4^2. — ^1^6 Spiegel, Eranische Altertumskunde 1, 527. — ^1^7 This is also the explanation of Grassmann, KZ. 11, 13; Leumann, KZ. 32, 301. — ^1^8 SVL. 130, note 3. — ^1^9 There is no reason to assume such a bridge in RV. 9, 41^2 (cp. SVL. 110) nor a river (Weber, Indische Skizzen 10) in RV. 10, 63^1^0 (cp. SVL. 111). — ^2^0 SBE. 4^2, lxxiv. — ^2^1 AIL. 419; SVL. 127. 152; ORV. 538. — ^2^2 IS. 4, 341 ff.; cp. AIL. 421; KRV. note 274. — ^2^3 Benfey, Vedica und Verwandtes 149—64; Kuhn, KZ. 2, 314; Weber, IS. 2, 298; MM., Chips 4^2, 250; LSL. (1891), 2, 595; Selected Essays (1881), 1, 494; KRV. note 274 a; van den Gheyn, Cerbère, Brussels 1883. — ^2^4 Cp. Rohde, Psyche 1, 280, note 1. — ^2^5 JAOS. 1893, p. 163—72. — ^2^6 Kāṭh. 37, 14 (MS. p. 101, note 2), Kauṣīt. Br. 11, 9 (= day and night); ŚB. 11, 1, 5^1 (moon a heavenly dog); on the dogs of Yama cp. also Rājendralāla Mitra, PRASB. May 1881, pp. 94. 96; Indo-Aryans, Calcutta 1881, 2, 156—65; Sp.AP. 239—40; HVM. 1, 225. 510—1; Casartelli, Dog of Death, BOR. 4, 269 f. — ^2^7 Sp.AP. 246. — ^2^8 Roth, JAOS. 3, 335; Darmesteter, Ormazd et Ahriman 106. — ^2^9 Roth, ZDMG. 4, 420; on traces of Yima having been the first man in the Avesta, cp. SVL. 148 n. 1. — ^3^0 Roth, ZDMG. 4, 425 ff.; IS. 14, 392; Scherman, Festschrift für K. Hofman, Erlangen 1890, p. 573 ff.; Hopkins, PAOS. May 1881. — ^3^1 Indogermanische Mythen 1, 229. 232. — ^3^2 KHF. 208; BRV. 1, 89; cp. Weber, Rājasūya 15, n. 1; YN. 12, 10 (Yama = lightning Agni, Yamī = voice of thunder); SVL. 132, n. 2. — ^3^3 BRI. 22—3; Ehni, Die urspr. Gotth. d. ved. Yama, p. 26 &c. — ^3^4 WVB. 1894, p. 1 (Yamī = night). — ^3^5 MM., LSL. 2, 634—7; India 224; AR. 297—8; Bergaigne, Manuel Védique 283 (sun that has set). — ^3^6 HVM. 1, 394 ff.; IF. 1, 7; also HVBP. 43.

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On this chapter cp. also Roth, ZDMG. 4, 417—33; JAOS. 342—5; Whitney, JAOS. 3, 327—8; 13, ciii—viii; OLS. 1, 46—63; Westergaard, IS. 3, 402—40; OST. 5, 284—335; Donner, Piṇḍapitṛyajña, 10—14. 28; AIL. 408—22; BRV. 1, 85—94; 2, 96; KRV. 69—71; Sp. AP. 243—56; Lanman, Sanskrit Reader 377—85; SVL. 122—61; HVM. 1, 489—513; ZDMG. 48, 421; Ehni, Der vedische Mythus des Yama, Strassburg 1890; Die ursprüngliche Gottheit des vedischen Yama, Leipzig 1896; Hopkins, PAOS. 1891, xciv—v; HRI. 128—50. 204—7; MM., PSr. 177—207; ORV. 524—43; SBE. 46, 29; Jackson, JAOS. 17, 185.

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