Yama in world religions

This article is about the Hindu and Buddhist deity Yama generally. For Yama in the Hindu tradition, see Yama (Hinduism). For Yama in the Buddhist and East Asian tradition, see Yama (Buddhism and Chinese mythology). For other uses, see Yama (disambiguation).

Yama's Court and Hell.The Blue figure is Yama with his consort Yami and Chitragupta
17th century Painting from Government Museum, Chennai

Yama (Sanskrit: यम), also known as Yamarāja (यमराज) in India, Shinje (གཤིན་རྗེ།) in TibeBig textt, Yamano (야마노) in South Korea, Yanluowang (閻羅王) or simply Yan (閻) in China, and Enma Dai-Ō (閻魔大王) in Japan, is the lord of death, first recorded in the Vedas. The name Yanluo (simplified Chinese: 阎罗; traditional Chinese: 閻羅; pinyin: Yánluó; Wade–Giles: Yen-lo) is a shortened Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit term यम राज Yama Rājā, or "King Yama". Enma Dai-Ō is a further transliteration, meaning "Great King Yama", where Enma means Yama, Enma-Ō means Yama Rājā and Enma Dai-Ō would be equivalent to यम महाराज Yama Mahārāja.

Yama belongs to an early stratum of Vedic mythology. In Vedic tradition Yama was considered to have been the first mortal who died and espied the way to the celestial abodes, and in virtue of precedence he became the ruler of the departed. Yama's name can be interpreted to mean "twin", and in some myths he is paired with a twin sister Yamī.

Eastern religion

Main article: Yama (Hinduism)

Yama from Tibet

Yama is a Lokapāla and an Aditya. In art, he is depicted with green or red skin, red clothes, and riding a water buffalo. He holds a loop of rope in his left hand with which he pulls the soul from the corpse. He is the son of Surya (Sun) and twin brother of Yami, or Yamuna, traditionally the first human pair in the Vedas. He was also worshiped as a son of Vivasvat and Saranya. He is one of the Guardians of the directions and represents the south. He reports to Lord Shiva the Destroyer, an aspect of Trimurti. Three hymns (10, 14, and 35) in the Rig Veda Book 10 are addressed to him. He has two dogs (cf. Hellhound) with four eyes and wide nostrils guarding the road to his abode. They are said to wander about among people as his messengers. There is a one of a kind temple in Srivanchiyam, Tamil Nadu, India, dedicated to Yama.

The Vedic Yama, with certain changes of function, was the basis for the Buddhist Yama, judge of the dead, who presides over the Buddhist Hells. The Buddhist Yama became an integral part of Chinese and Japanese mythology. Although ultimately based on the god Yama of the Hindu Vedas, the Buddhist Yama has developed different myths and different functions from the Hindu deity.

Yama's abode

Naraka (Hindu)

Main article: Naraka (Hinduism)

Naraka in Hinduism, is compared to the Abrahamic concept of Hell. However, Naraka in Hinduism is not equivalent to Hell in Christian faith. Naraka is only a purgatory where the soul gets purified of sin by sufferings. In Hindu myth, there are many hells, and Yama, Lord of Justice, sends human beings after death for appropriate punishment. Even Mukti-yogyas (souls eligible for mukti or moksha), and Nitya-samsarins (forever transmigrating ones in Dvaita theology) can experience Naraka for expiation.

Nark (Nerg) (Sikhism)

The idea of Nark (nerg) in Sikhism is like the idea of Hell, however one's soul is confined to 8.4 million life cycles before taking birth as a human, the point of human life being one where one attains salvation, the salvation being sach khand, the idea of khand comes in multiple levels of such heavens, but the highest being merging with God as one, the idea of Hell is like it comes in multiple levels, and hell itself can manifest within human life itself. The Sikh idea of hell is where one is apart from naam and gurus charan (God's lotus feet (abode)). Without naam one is damned, Naam is believed to be a direct deliverance from God to humanity in the form of Guru Nanak. A sikh is hence required to take the Amrit (holy nectar/water) from gurbani, panj pyare (khanda da pahul) to come closer to naam, the essential view point of a Sikhs life being to worship naam. Hell would be a direct consequence of ones karam (merits), after death the angel of death takes the human soul out of the human's hair (one reason for uncut hair), if one does not have hair the jamdoot (yamdoot) - angel of death will rip it out of the skin causing a lot of pain, depending on one's actions and merits that is the pain and suffering of a journey (transition) one faces to the court of dharam raj (the king of righteousness also known in Hindi as the deity Yama, is Sikhism yamraj/yam/dharamraj is a servant of God) who reads out a persons life from chitar gupt (angels who record every action of ones life even from dreams) Dharamraj then leads a judgment on that person's life to go to hell, heaven, take different life, (i.e. a person who spent his life slaughtering an animal has to take that life and be slaughtered many times and experience being eaten). A true Sikh of the Gurus has the Guru himself manifest and take that person into sach khand.

Naraka (Buddhist)

Main article: Naraka (Buddhism)

Naraka is usually translated into English as "hell" or "purgatory". A Naraka differs from the hells of western religions in two respects. First, beings are not sent to Naraka as the result of a divine judgment and punishment; second, the length of a being's stay in a Naraka is not eternal, though it is usually very long. Instead, a being is born into a Naraka as a direct result of his or her previous karma (actions of body, speech and mind), and resides there for a finite length of time until his karma has exhausted its cumulate effect.

Di Yu (Chinese mythology) and Jigoku (Japanese mythology)

Main article: Di Yu and Jigoku

Chinese Di Yu, Japanese Jigoku, literally "earth prison", is the realm of the dead or "hell" in Chinese mythology and Japanese mythology. It is based upon the Buddhist concept of Naraka combined with local afterlife beliefs. Incorporating ideas from Taoism and Buddhism as well as traditional religion in China, Di Yu is a kind of purgatory place which serves not only to punish but also to renew spirits ready for their next incarnation. Jigoku is similar, with Shinto concepts. These names are interchangeable with the concept of Naraka.

Related concepts

Yama and Ymir

Main article: Ymir

In a disputable etymology, W. Meid (1992) has linked the names Yama (reconstructed in Proto-Indo-European as *yemos) and the name of the primeval Norse frost giant Ymir, which can be reconstructed in Proto-Germanic as *umijaz or *jumijaz, in the latter case possibly deriving from PIE *ym̩yos, from the root yem "twin". In his myth, however, Ymir is not a twin, and only shares with Yama the characteristics of being primeval and mortal. However, Ymir is a hermaphrodite and engenders the race of giants.

Yama in Iranian mythology

Main article: Jamshid

The parallel character in the Iranian mythology of Zoroastrianism is known as Yima Xšaēta in the Zoroastrian scripture of the Avesta. The pronunciation "Yima" is peculiar to the Avestan dialect; in most Iranian dialects, including Old Persian, the name would have been "Yama". In the Avesta, the emphasis is on Yima/Yama's character as one of the first mortals and as a great king of men. Over time, *Yamaxšaita was transformed into Jamšēd or Jamshid, celebrated as the greatest of the early Shāhs of the world.

Yama in Javanese

There is Yamadipati in Javanese culture, especially in wayang. The word adipati means ruler or commander. When Hinduism first came to Java, Yama was still the same as Yama in Hindu myth. Later, as Islam replaced Hinduism as the majority religion of Java, Yama was demystified by Walisanga, who ruled at that time. So, in Javanese, Yama became a new character. He is the son of Sanghyang Ismaya and Dewi Sanggani. In the Wayang legend, Yamadipati married Dewi Mumpuni. Unfortunately, Dewi Mumpuni fell in love with Nagatatmala, son of Hyang Anantaboga, who rules the earth. Dewi Mumpuni eventually left Yamadipati, however.

See also

• History of India
• Ymir
• Jamshid
• Yama (Hinduism)
• Yama (Buddhism and Chinese mythology)

References

• List of underworlds