Yamadvitīyā

Yamadvitīyā · yama-dvitīyā, “the second day of Yama”

Yamadvitīyā is also called Bhrātṛ Dvitīyā and Yama Dvitīyā. It is kept on dvitīyā, the second tithi of the bright fortnight (śukla paksha) of Kārtika. Brahmā himself calls it destroyer of Mṛtyu (death). It keeps the one who observes it from untimely death, gives children, and in the end gives moksha. The centre of the vrata is that a brother goes to his sister’s house and eats a meal she has cooked. The Skanda Purāṇa gives it in the Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Kārtika Māsa Māhātmya, Chapter 11.

The Agni Purāṇa (Chapter 177) also gives a vrata to Yama on this tithi. There Agni teaches Vasishṭha Maharshi to worship Yama on the second tithi of the bright fortnight of Kārtika, and then to keep a fast on the second tithi of every bright fortnight for one year. One who keeps it goes to svarga (heaven) and does not go to naraka.

Its origin

The Purāṇa says the vrata began at the start of creation. On the second day of the bright fortnight of Kārtika, the devī Yamunā took her brother Yama into her own house. She fed him and honoured him with great love and care. Moved by his sister’s love, Yama on that day set free all the jīvas bound in the narakas and suffering in the bonds of karma. Even those held by the bonds of their own deeds were allowed to move freely on that day.

This event gave the vrata its form, a brother eating at his sister’s house.

The vidhi

The vrata begins in the Brahma Muhūrta, before sunrise.

  • The devotee rises, cleans his teeth and takes the morning bath.
  • He puts on white clothes and white garlands, applies fragrant unguents, and wears ear-rings and armlets, so that he looks bright and auspicious.
  • Near an audumbara (wild fig) tree he draws on the ground a diagram in the form of an eight-petalled lotus.
  • On this diagram he worships Brahmā, Vishṇu, Rudra and Sarasvatī with sandal paste, agallochum, musk, saffron, fresh flowers and incense. The naivedya is coconut fruits.
  • He then gives a milch cow with her calf to a brāhmaṇa who knows the Veda, saying this mantra:

“O Brāhmaṇa, I give this gentle cow to you for the prevention of premature death and for freedom from the ocean of worldly existence.”

  • If a milch cow is not to be had, the Purāṇa says to give a pair of shoes in its place.

Going to the sister’s house

When the worship is done and he has bowed to the elders of the family and to his kinsmen, the brother goes to the house of his own sister (his uterine sister). He says to her: “O gentle lady, O my auspicious sister, I have come to your house to bow at your lotus feet.”

The sister receives him with joy and answers: “O my brother, today I have become blessed and auspicious through you. O lamp of the family, take your food in my house today, on the second day of the bright fortnight of Kārtika, for my long life.”

The brother eats the meal his sister has prepared in her own house, and by this the vrata is complete.

When it is not kept

The Purāṇa speaks gravely of the man who does not eat at his sister’s house on this tithi. His own pāpa take a voice and say: “We are very glad to receive this man full of pāpa who does not take food in the house of his sister. We shall devour him today.” The protection the tithi gives is not given to one who fails to keep it.

The bath in the Yamunā

Sūta teaches that on this second day of Kārtika one should worship Yama in the forenoon and take the holy bath in the Yamunā. By this bath one does not see the world of Yama. That is, one is protected from untimely death, and does not pass through Yamaloka before the natural end of one’s life.

The phala

Brahmā says: “He who keeps this rite of the Dvitīyā named after Yama shall be freed from untimely death, surrounded by sons and grandsons, enjoying abundant pleasures, and in the end shall reach moksha.”

So the vrata gives protection from untimely death, then a happy family and wealth, and at last moksha.

Its place in Kārtika

Yamadvitīyā belongs to the Kārtika Māhātmya, the glory of the month of Kārtika, and is one of the tithis the Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa names in its account of Kārtika observances. In the Kārtika order it comes after Dīpāvalī. After it come Prabodhinī Ekādaśī and Vaikuṇṭha Caturdaśī. Together they make the arc of Kārtika that ends in Tripurī Pūrṇimā.

Per Agni Purāṇa

The Agni Purāṇa gives the vrata among the vratas of the dvitīyā, the second lunar day, which Agni teaches to Vasishṭha Maharshi. He says these dvitīyā vratas give both bhukti (enjoyment in this world) and mukti (moksha).

  • On the second tithi of the bright fortnight of Kārtika, the devotee worships Yama.
  • From that day, for one year, he keeps the vrata with an upavāsa (fast) on the second tithi of every bright fortnight.
  • The phala: the man who keeps it goes to svarga and does not go to naraka.

In the same chapter Agni names the Kānti Vrata, which also begins on the second tithi of the bright fortnight of Kārtika: a fast by day and a meal at night, with the pūjā of Śrī Kṛshṇa and Balarāma, kept for one year.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 177

Sources

  • Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Kārtika Māsa Māhātmya, Chapter 11
  • Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 177