Yama

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Yama (Skt., ‘restraint’).
1. The god of death in Hinduism and Buddhism, also called Dharma Rāja, possibly connected with the Iranian Yima. In the Ṛg Veda he appears in books 1 and 10 presiding over the ancestors or ‘fathers’ (pitṛ) in the third (highest) heaven of the sky (svarga) realm (above atmosphere, bhuvah, and earth, bhūr). In the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, Yama bestows highest knowledge. Post-Vedic mythology in contrast portrays Yama as a judge and punisher of the dead in a lower world where the soul (ātman, jīva, puruṣa) goes after death and receives its sentence. The Mahābhārata depicts Yama as clothed in red with glaring eyes, holding a noose with which to bind the souls of the dead. This image is embellished in later mythology where he is a terrible deity inflicting torture upon souls. Yama is associated with the south, the realm of the dead.

In Buddhism, Yama is the Lord of the Underworld. In some respects, he is replaced by Māra. The canonical account of Yama is contained mainly in the two almost identical Devadūta Suttas in Majjhima Nikāya 3. 179 ff., and Anguttara Nikāya 1. 138 ff.

In the post-canonical Buddhist literature, Yama is depicted as the overlord of the purgatory system who assigns to beings the punishments they must undergo in expiation of their karmic misdeeds. In Tantric Buddhism, Yama is a fierce deity. Tibetan iconography and the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol) portray Yama, who appears at death, as standing in a halo of flames, adorned with human skulls and heads, holding in his left hand the mirror of karma (which reflects the good and bad deeds of the deceased) and in his right hand the sword of wisdom (prajña).

2. The first limb of eight-limbed (aṣṭaṅga) or rāja yoga comprising five ethical rules: (i) non-injury (ahiṃsā), (ii) truthfulness (satya), (iii) non-stealing (asteya), (iv) celibacy (brahmacarya), and (v) greedlessness (aparigraha). Commitment to these is the Great Vow (Mahāvrata).

Yama (Skt., restraint). The god of death and lord of the underworld (naraka). Yama is a Hindu god who first appears in the Ṛg Veda (see Veda), and in later mythology rules the underworld as judge and punisher of the dead. In Buddhism, he loses these two functions since according to Buddhist teachings karma alone determines one's fate in the afterlife, and the intervention of a supernatural judge is therefore not required. To a certain degree, Yama is also eclipsed by Māra, and it is the latter who appears with greater frequency and clarity in Buddhist literature as the personification of moral evil. Nevertheless, the older conceptions are not entirely lost, and in the Pāli Canon Yama is depicted as a kind of superintendent of the karmic process of post-mortem retribution that takes place in purgatory. He rules over this realm together with his eight generals and a retinue of 80,000 servants. The souls of the dead are led before him and he reminds them that they themselves are the authors of their fate and are alone responsible for the expiatory punishment they are about to undergo. His messengers are old age, sickness, and death, and he dispatches them into the human world as an omen and warning about the brevity of life. In Pāli sources sometimes two or four Yamas are mentioned. In tantric Buddhism, Yama is depicted as a terrifying figure adorned with human skulls and surrounded by flames. In his left hand he holds the mirror of karma that reflects the good and evil deeds an individual has performed, and in his right hand the sword of insight (prajñā).

Yama in Hindu mythology, the first man to die. He became the guardian, judge, and ruler of the dead, and is represented as carrying a noose and riding a buffalo.

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