Yama

Yama, “the restrainer”

Yama is the son of Sūrya (Vivasvān) and Saṃjñā. He is the Dharmarāja, the king of dharma and the ruler of the dead. He gives out the results of karma (karma-phala) to each one with strict fairness in the world after death. Yama was born through a śāpa (a curse) that Sūrya spoke on Saṃjñā.

His sister is Yamunā, born from a second śāpa on Saṃjñā. His half-brothers are Vaivasvata Manu and the twin Aśvins. The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa describes at length the narakas over which Yama rules and the justice of karma that governs how the departed are treated.

The Vāmana Purāṇa calls him Sūryatanaya and Ravi-putra, the son of Sūrya, Dharmarāja and Daṇḍapāṇi, the one who holds the daṇḍa (the staff of justice), and names him the guardian of the south. His vāhana is Pauṇḍraka, a black buffalo born from the thighs of Rudra. His kiṅkaras and dūtas (servants and messengers) carry out the torments of the narakas. He fought Prahlāda in the war of the daitya Andhaka against the devas; he gave his daṇḍa to Kātyāyanī Devī and six attendants to Skanda; and when the dānava Mura came to conquer him, he sent Mura to Bhagavān Vishṇu, under whose command he stands. The Purāṇa teaches that Yama himself tells his dūtas never to go near those who have taken refuge in Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Birth

Yama’s birth came from a śāpa. His mother Saṃjñā was the daughter of the divine architect Viśvakarmā and the wife of Sūrya. She could not bear the great tejas (radiance) of Bhagavān Sūrya. In his presence she would close her eyes rather than look at his brilliance. Sūrya saw this and spoke a śāpa on her: she would bear a prajā-saṃyamana, one who restrains and controls beings. Yama was born from this śāpa. His name and nature as the master of restraint over all created beings thus come from the way his mother failed before the radiance of the Sun. The full account of Saṃjñā is told in the story of Saṃjñā. (Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapters 74–75)

Role as Dharmarāja

Yama is the Dharmarāja, the king of dharma and supreme judge of the dead. When a being leaves the mortal world, Yama receives the record of its actions, the karma of its whole life. He gives out karma-phala with strict fairness. He sends each one to the fitting narakas to wipe out its karma, or to higher worlds according to its puṇya (merit). No being escapes his rule. Even devas and great ṛshis are under the dharmic accounting that he oversees.

The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa describes the narakas in Yama’s realm: their names, the kind of wrongdoers each receives, and how long and how hard the suffering is for each kind of wrong. The aim of the narakas is not endless punishment but the wiping out of karma. After that the jīva moves on according to what remains of its puṇya and pāpa (sin). (Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapters 10–14)

Family and lineage

Yama belongs to the solar line of Sūrya. His close family is:

• Father: Sūrya (Vivasvān, Mārtāṇḍa)
• Mother: Saṃjñā
• Sister: Yamunā, the sacred river, born from Sūrya’s second śāpa on Saṃjñā
• Half-brother: Vaivasvata Manu, the seventh and present Manu, father of the present human race. He was born of Chāyā, the shadow-double that Saṃjñā made.
• Half-brothers: Nāsatya and Daśra, the twin Aśvins, born when Sūrya and Saṃjñā were reunited in Uttara Kuru

As the elder son of Sūrya and Saṃjñā, Yama stands at the head of the solar family’s dharmic rule in the three worlds. (Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapters 74–75)

Yama in ritual

Yama is honoured by name in the śrāddha rite. The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa says the third āhuti (offering into the fire) of the śrāddha is made with this mantra:

Yama-sūtāya sūrya-putrāya svāhā

The mantra names Yama as the son of Sūrya, and as the one to whom the departed ancestors must in the end answer. Through this act the departing jīva is placed in his just and fair care. (Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapters 74–75)

Yama as a graha

The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa says that after Yama’s birth from Sūrya, the devas formally set him in his cosmic offices. He became:

• Dharma-rāja, king of dharma and judge of all departed jīvas
• Pitṛ-pati, master of the pitṛs (ancestors)
• Kāla, Time itself

The Purāṇa adds that Yama was also set among the grahas (planetary devas), the guiding power of a celestial body whose effect on human life is tied to his nature as master of karma and its results. (Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapter 103)

Yama as teacher: the Yama-Gītā

In the Agni Purāṇa, Agni-deva tells Vasishṭha the teaching that Yama gave to Naciketas. This is the same setting as in the Kaṭhopanishad. It presents the paramaśreyas (the highest good) through the words of eight great ṛshis, before Yama himself gives the final teaching.

Yama begins with the great puzzle of human life. A human being is himself unstable and passing (asthira, aśāśvata), yet he is deeply attached to the wish that his seat, bed, vehicle, clothes and house should stay his for ever. Yama then gives the teaching of eight ṛshis on what the paramaśreyas is for a human being.

Kapila. Freedom from attachment to pleasures (bhoga-anāsakti) and the unbroken seeing of the ātman at all times. This is the paramaśreyas for human beings.

Pañcaśikha. Seeing all with equal vision (sama-darśana) in every state, having no mamakāra (the sense of “mine”), and not clinging (asaṅgatva). This is the paramaśreyas.

Gāṅgāvishṇu. Knowing the avasthās (stages of existence), beginning with life in the womb (garbha-vāsa) and going on through birth, childhood, youth and all later states, and knowing the nature of suffering in each. This is the paramaśreyas.

Janaka. Knowing the beginning (ādi) and end (anta) of the three kinds of duḥkha (suffering), and acting to meet them (pratikriyā). The three kinds are ādhyātmika (arising from one’s own body and mind), ādhibhautika (arising from other beings) and ādhidaivika (arising from cosmic forces). This is the paramaśreyas.

Brahmā. That which dissolves (śamana) the appearance of difference (bheda) in what is in truth the undivided, non-dual tattva (reality). This is the paramaśreyas.

Jaigīshavya. Doing the duties set by the Ṛg, Yajus and Sāma Vedas as pure duty (kartavya-buddhi), without saṅga (attachment to results). This is the paramaśreyas.

Devala. Giving up all undertakings (sarva-kāryārambha-parityāga) is itself the road to happiness. This giving up is the paramaśreyas for human beings.

Sanaka. Giving up kāma (desire) leads to vijñāna (direct knowledge), sukha (happiness) and the highest state (paramapada). Those who keep kāma cannot reach vijñāna.

After these eight views, Yama gives his own summing up. Action of both kinds, pravṛtti (going out) and nivṛtti (turning back), must be done, but naishkarmya (the self’s freedom from action) is the paramaśreyas. This is the very nature of Hari (Hari-svarūpa). The jñānī (knower) does not feel any separation from the supreme, imperishable Brahman, who is Vishṇu. Through tapas, jñāna, vijñāna and auspiciousness (saubhāgya), the supreme form is reached.

Yama then teaches about the nature of the ātman. The body is the chariot. Buddhi (the intellect) is the sārathin (charioteer). Manas (the mind) is the reins (kaḷḷeṃ). The senses are the horses, and the objects of the senses are the places the road leads to. The ātman, the senses and manas together are what the paṇḍitas call the bhoktā (the one who enjoys). One who has not mastered manas and has not gained vijñāna cannot reach the highest state. He goes on in saṃsāra. But one who has mastered manas, who has vijñāna as charioteer and holds the reins of manas, crosses the road of saṃsāra and reaches the highest place of Vishṇu (paraṃ Vishṇu-padam).

Yama then lists what is beyond what. The ātman is beyond (para) the senses. Manas is beyond the ātman. Buddhi is beyond manas. Mahat is beyond buddhi. Avyakta is beyond mahat. Purusha is beyond avyakta. Nothing is beyond purusha. Purusha is the final limit (parākāshṭhā) and the highest goal (parāgati).

The ātman hidden in all beings cannot be seen by the outer eye. Those of fine sight see it through the fine buddhi.

Yama’s last declaration is that when ajñāna (ignorance) and its results are dissolved, the jīva becomes ajara (free of old age) and amara (deathless).

Agni-deva then says to Vasishṭha: “I have now taught you the Yama-Gītā, which gives bhukti and mukti to those who read or hear it. The gaining of brahma-buddhi everywhere through the knowledge of Vedānta is the ātyantika-pralaya itself.” (Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 382)

Yama and Sāvitri: five varas and the origin of the Sāvitri vrata

The Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 102, gives the fullest Purāṇic account of Sāvitri’s meeting with Yama and the five varas (boons) she won from him. This upākhyāna (episode) is the root of the Sāvitri vrata (vow). The whole narrative is told in the Sāvitri–Satyavān story.

The meeting

Satyavān died exactly as Nārada had foretold, one year from his marriage to Sāvitri. When Yama came to take Satyavān’s jīva, the young queen followed Yama as he led her husband’s jīva south. Yama first urged her to turn back. She answered that she had the right to follow, and argued it from dharma: “Where my husband goes, I go. This is the eternal dharma of a pativratā (a wife devoted to her husband), and no force can block it.” Yama was moved but firm in his cosmic duty, and he went on south.

Sāvitri kept following and arguing. Yama offered her varas. Four times he granted what she asked, hoping each time that she would be satisfied and go home in peace. But Sāvitri chose each vara with great skill. Each was entirely righteous, and each drew Yama step by step toward the fifth.

The five varas

First vara. Sāvitri asked for the return of sight and of the lost kingdom of her father-in-law. Dyumatsena, Satyavān’s father, had been blinded and driven from his kingdom. Yama granted this.

Second vara. Sāvitri asked for a hundred sons for her father, King Aśvapati, born of his own body. Yama granted this without delay.

Third vara. Sāvitri asked for a hundred sons for herself, born of her own body and full of great qualities. Yama granted this too.

Fourth vara. She asked that the forest become safe and that the āśrama of the ṛshis around it flourish, giving peace and freedom from fear to all the ascetics. Yama granted this.

Fifth vara. Yama had granted four varas, and he knew that Sāvitri still had not turned back. He asked what last vara she wished. Sāvitri answered: “You have granted me a hundred sons born of my own body. This vara cannot come true without Satyavān alive. So grant me the life of my husband.”

Yama was bound. The four earlier varas had made the fifth impossible to refuse. He declared that the life of Satyavān was fully restored. He accepted that Sāvitri’s pativratā-dharma had won what no force in the three worlds could have won in any other way.

Yama’s teaching to Sāvitri

Through the whole meeting, Yama spoke with Sāvitri in a dharmic dialogue on the nature of the ātman, the certainty of death and the cosmic order that he oversees. He praised her understanding: “You have argued not from feeling but from dharma itself. This is why your words win. A pativratā who understands dharma as deeply as you is more powerful in the realm of truth than the strongest force.” (Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 102)

Yama in the Ajāmila Upākhyāna: the twelve Mahājanas and the power of the Name

The sixth Skanda of the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa gives one of the most important teachings of Yama Dharmarāja. It comes from the Ajāmila Upākhyāna (Chapters 1–3). The vishṇudūtas had stopped the yamadūtas from taking Ajāmila to Yama’s realm. When the yamadūtas came back, Yama taught them the supremacy of bhakti to Bhagavān Vishṇu and the nature of dharma.

The twelve Mahājanas

Yama said that the highest dharma is bhakti to Bhagavān Vishṇu, beginning with kīrtana (chanting) of the names of Bhagavān Vishṇu. It is the best dharma for all beings. But he said this dharma is gūḍha (hidden, subtle and deep). It cannot be reached by tarka (reasoning) alone, nor by argument over the śāstras, nor by one’s own judgment shaped by the guṇas. Only twelve, the Dvādaśa Mahājanas, truly know it. They received this understanding by the grace of Bhagavān Vishṇu himself:

1. Brahmā
2. Nārada
3. Śiva (Śambhu)
4. Sanatkumāra
5. Bhagavān Kapila
6. Svāyambhuva Manu
7. Prahlāda
8. Janaka
9. Bhīshma
10. Bali
11. Śuka (Śukadeva)
12. Yama himself

Yama then told his dūtas never to go near those who keep the name of Bhagavān Vishṇu on their lips, who remember his feet, who bow before Śrī Kṛshṇa, who worship him. Such beings are beyond Yama’s daṇḍa. “Bring me those who do not chant his name, who do not remember his feet, who do not bow before Śrī Kṛshṇa. Those are within my rule.” (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skanda, Chapter 3)

The power of the Name

The deeper teaching Yama was giving is the Nāma-mahimā, the supreme power of the names of Bhagavān Vishṇu. Even Ajāmila said “Nārāyaṇa!” with no devotion at all, only to call his son. Yet the vishṇudūtas freed him, because nāma-śakti (the power of the Name) works through the syllables themselves, whatever the speaker intends. Ordinary prāyaścitta (atonement) destroys the outer act of pāpa but leaves the vāsanā (the hidden tendency) in place. Hari-nāma-kīrtana cleanses the antaḥkaraṇa (the inner instrument) itself, which is the seat of all vāsanā, so that it cannot make new karma-bījas (seeds of karma). This is the highest secret of the Dvādaśa Mahājanas, which Yama passed on to his own servants. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skanda, Chapters 1–3)

Yama in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa: Mālavatī’s questions

In the account of Upabarhaṇa and Mālavatī (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 13–18), Yama is one of three cosmic officers whom the grieving Mālavatī faced after the death of Upabarhaṇa. Upabarhaṇa died by a chosen yogic exit in the assembly of the devas, and Yama’s messengers came to lead his jīva away.

In her deep grief and firm purpose, Mālavatī questioned Yama, Kāla (Time) and Mṛtyu-kanyā (the daughter of Death) one after another. She asked which of them was truly responsible for her husband’s death, and whether the law of karma-phala could be challenged.

The dharmic dialogue that followed dealt with the nature of dharma, the certainty of karma, and the role of Yama as the fair keeper of cosmic justice. Bhagavān Vishṇu, who appeared as a brāhmaṇa boy, guided this dialogue. Through the messengers, he revealed a deeper teaching on karma-phala, which led Mālavatī and the devas toward the joint revival of Upabarhaṇa. (Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 13–18)

The Yama-mārga: the road to Yama’s realm

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 31, spoken by Sanaka Maharshi, describes the Yama-mārga in detail.

Size. The road to Yama-loka is 86,000 yojanas wide, as the jñānins (knowers) declare.

For the pious. Those who gave dāna (gifts) travel the Yama-mārga easily and in comfort. Those who gave food (anna-dāna) travel eating good food. Those who gave water (jala-dāna) drink good drinks. Those who gave cloth (vastra-dāna) wear divine clothes. Those who gave a cow, a horse or an elephant travel in splendid vimānas with apsarasas (celestial women) in attendance. Those who gave lamps (dīpa-dāna) travel with the directions lit around them. Those who served their parents are praised by the devatās all along the way. The righteous are met at Yama’s hall in friendship and sent on to svarga.

For wrongdoers. The pāpins (those who did pāpa) travel the road in torment. They are naked, with dry throats and lips, thin, and crying out terribly. They are bound with ropes and nooses, sometimes by the nose and sometimes by the ears. The fearsome yamadūtas lash them with whips and strike them with iron rods. The road itself is cruel. Mud, raging fire, burning hot sand, wildfire, sharp rocks, thorny trees, caves that cannot be passed and pitch darkness come one after another along the way.

Yama’s form. Yama Dharmarāja shows his fearsome form to the wrongdoers. He has 32 arms (his form for the pious is caturbhuja, four-armed). He stands three yojanas high (yojana-traya-vistāra). He is dark as collyrium (kāṭuka koṇḍa-kānti), with blood-red eyes (vāpī-tulya-ugra-locana), a dreadful fanged mouth, and weapons blazing like lightning. He roars like the clouds of pralaya (the dissolution).

Citragupta. Citragupta attends Yama, surrounded by the agents of fever and other illnesses, and looks terrible to the wrongdoers. He reads out the record of their deeds and warns them: “You gave yourselves to kāma and krodha (desire and anger) with pride. You did great pāpas. Now enjoy the fruits with the same joy.” He declares that Yama treats the poor and the rich, the foolish and the learned, the coward and the hero, with equal fairness.

After this reckoning the wrongdoers are handed to the yamadūtas, who lead them to the fitting narakas. (Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 31)

Kedāra Khaṇḍa: Advaita teaching and new decrees

The Kedāra Khaṇḍa records two important meetings between Yama and Śiva.

The Advaita teaching (Chapter 31). After the war against Tāraka had ended, Yama came to pay his respects to Śiva on Kailāsa. Śiva gave Yama the core of the Advaita teaching. The ātman is not the body, not the intellect and not the ego. It is the pure witness, one with Brahman. Saṃsāra comes from avidyā (ignorance) and rāga-dvesha (attraction and dislike). Moksha (liberation) is gained through tattva-jñāna, the knowing that the one ātman fills all as Śiva-tattva. All actions and their fruits belong to the apparent ego, and the ātman is untouched. Śiva gave this teaching straight to the ruler of death. The one who gives out the results of karma learns from the one who is beyond karma. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 31)

New decrees after Kāla was burned (Chapter 32). Śiva burned Kāla (Death in person, Yama’s final instrument) with his third eye to protect the devoted king Śveta-rāja. Yama saw the whole event. Kāla was revived at Śveta-rāja’s request. Then Śiva told Yama to issue lasting decrees. Those who wear the tripuṇḍra (three lines of sacred ash, the mark of a devotee of Śiva) and those who wear rudrāksha are never to be taken to Yama-loka by his messengers. Devotees of Vishṇu who bear the usual marks of their devotion are to be treated with the same respect. These decrees set down the rule that true bhakti places a devotee outside the ordinary rule of karma-phala. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 32)

Mahābhārata: the gift of the Daṇḍāstra to Arjuna

In the Vana Parva, Yama was one of the four lokapālas (guardians of the directions) who came down to the Himālaya peak where Arjuna stood, after Arjuna had received the Pāśupatāstra from Śiva. As the ruler of the south and the Dharmarāja, Yama was the first of the lokapālas to arrive. He honoured Arjuna’s tapas and gave him the Daṇḍāstra. This is the divine weapon that holds the power of Yama’s daṇḍa (the staff of cosmic justice). With it, any enemy whose account of dharma was complete could be struck without fail. (Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapter 41)

Anuśāsana Parva: Saṃyamanī in the Hastikūṭa Itihāsa

In the Hastikūṭa account in the Anuśāsana Parva, the brāhmaṇa Gautama again and again threatens to drag Indra to Saṃyamanī, Yama’s own city. Indra is disguised as a king called “Dhṛtarāshṭra”. Saṃyamanī is described as the place “where the doer of puṇya rejoices and the doer of pāpa grieves”, where no one speaks a falsehood and the weak are able to overcome the strong. Yama himself does not speak in this episode. His city is named only as the place of judgment that Gautama threatens. The account is told in full in the story of Hastikūṭa, Gautama, the elephant and Indra. (Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 102)

Anuśāsana Parva: Citragupta’s secret teaching

In the Rahasya-Dharma cycle, right after Arundhatī gives her own dawn cow-horn water rite to the gathered ṛshis, pitṛs and devas, Yama himself becomes the speaker. He tells a dear and wonderful teaching he once heard from his own scribe Citragupta. No puṇya or pāpa, however small, is ever lost. Giving water and lamps without a break wins a place by the river Puṇyodakā in preta-loka, kept for those who gave water. A kapila cow given to a scholar of the Veda, above all at Pushkara in Kārtika, cleanses even brahma-hatyā (the killing of a brāhmaṇa). When Sūrya heard this teaching told by Yama, he named the five dharma-drohis (enemies of dharma) who must never be spoken to. The full teaching is told in the account of Yama and Citragupta. (Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 130)

Mahā Prasthānika Parva: the dog and the testing of Yudhishṭhira

When the Pāṇḍavas made their great departure, Yama went with Yudhishṭhira throughout the journey in the humble form of a dog. Yama was there as Dharma, whose son Yudhishṭhira was. The dog alone stayed faithful to Yudhishṭhira after Draupadī and the four brothers had fallen.

Indra came with his chariot and told the king to leave the dog. Dogs, he said, have no place in svarga, and the Krodhavaśa devas would carry off the fruit of one’s rites if a dog were present. Yudhishṭhira refused. He held that to abandon a devoted and frightened being who has come for refuge equals the four great pāpas.

Then the being cast off the form of the dog and stood revealed as Dharma himself. With loving and praising words he said that by his conduct, wisdom and compassion for all beings, Yudhishṭhira had upheld the honour of his line and of his father Pāṇḍu. Dharma recalled that he had tested Yudhishṭhira once before at Dvaitavana. The brothers had fallen at the poisoned lake, and Yudhishṭhira had asked for the life of Nakula out of fairness to his stepmother Mādrī. Now, by refusing to leave the devoted dog even at the cost of the divine chariot, Yudhishṭhira had shown that no one in svarga was his equal. Dharma gave him imperishable worlds and the highest divine goal in his own mortal body. (Mahābhārata, Mahā Prasthānika Parva, Chapter 3)

Svargārohaṇa Parva: the third and last test of Yudhishṭhira

In the last parva, Dharma, whose son Yudhishṭhira was, took visible form once more. He came with Indra and the gathered devas to the king as he stood in the illusory naraka and refused to leave his kinsmen. With loving words Dharma showed that this trial was the third by which he had proved his son. The first was at Dvaitavana, the Yaksha-praśna about the lost araṇi (fire-sticks). The second was on the great departure, when Yudhishṭhira had gone on with the faithful dog. Now, in the king’s readiness to stay in naraka out of love for his brothers and Draupadī, the third was complete.

Dharma declared him cleansed, free of all fault, and so firm that no temptation could move him from his nature. He said that the Pāṇḍavas and Draupadī had never truly belonged in naraka. He then led Yudhishṭhira to bathe in the celestial Gaṅgā and to cast off his human body. The three trials are told together in the account of the three tests of Yudhishṭhira, and the whole narrative in the account of Yudhishṭhira’s ascent to svarga. (Mahābhārata, Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 3)

Per Vāmana Purāṇa

The Vāmana Purāṇa is told by Pulastya Maharshi to Nārada Maharshi. It does not tell Yama’s birth. It names him in many of its accounts: as a lokapāla who goes to war with the devas, as the master of the servants who carry out the torments of the narakas, and as one who stands under the command of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

His names and his place

In the war against Andhaka the Purāṇa calls Yama Sūryatanaya, the son of Sūrya, Ravi-putra, the son of Ravi, and Dharmarāja. In the account of Mura he is Yama Dharmarāja and Daṇḍapāṇi, the one who holds the daṇḍa. In the svastivācana, the words of blessing that Bhagavān Vishṇu spoke over Skanda, the guardians of the directions are named in this way: “In the east may Indra, in the south Yama, in the west Varuṇa, in the north Candra protect you.” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 10, 32, 34)

His vāhana Pauṇḍraka

When Nārada Maharshi asked on which vāhanas the devas went to war, Pulastya Maharshi named them one by one. Airāvata, the white elephant of Indra, was born from the palm of Rudra‘s hand. Pauṇḍraka, the vāhana of Yama, is a buffalo born from the thighs of Rudra: black, of fearsome form, moving with the speed of the mind.

The rājarshi Kuru, when he resolved to cultivate the field of Samantapañcaka, yoked to a golden plough the bull of Rudra and Yama’s buffalo named Pauṇḍraka, and began to plough with his own hands.

When the dānava brothers Śumbha and Niśumbha defeated the devas, they carried off Indra’s Airāvata, Yama’s buffalo, Varuṇa’s umbrella, the gadā of the Maruts, and Kubera‘s nidhis (treasures) Śaṅkha, Padma and the others. In the Devī’s war against them, Caṇḍamārī, the fierce form that came forth from a strand of the braid Durgā had plaited, pursued Caṇḍa and Muṇḍa on a donkey as swift as Garuḍa. On the way she saw Pauṇḍra, the buffalo of Yama. She tore out its horn, which was like a black serpent of death, and went on after the daityas holding it. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 9, 23, 29)

Against Prahlāda in the war of Andhaka

The daitya Andhaka, son of Hiraṇyāksha, had won from Bhagavān Śiva the varas that no deva, siddha, ṛshi or pannaga could conquer or slay him, and he set out to conquer the devas. In the great battle the heroes met in single combat: Andhaka against Indra; the daityapati Prahlāda, in his chariot of eight horses, against Yama, who came on mounted on his buffalo; Virocana against Varuṇa; Jambha against Kubera; Śambara against Vāyu; and Maya against Agni.

When Andhaka had felled Airāvata and Indra had withdrawn to Amarāvatī, Yama, brandishing his daṇḍa, pursued Prahlāda to slay him. Prahlāda, son of Hiraṇyakaśipu, quickly strung his bow and overwhelmed him with a rain of arrows. The son of Sūrya scattered that mass of arrows and hurled his world-terrifying daṇḍa at Prahlāda. Seeing it come on, blazing like the kālāgni, the fire that burns the three worlds at the end of time, the rākshasa soldiers cried out: “Alas! Prahlāda is slain at Yama’s hand!”

Hearing their cry, Andhaka said: “While I am here, why fear? Who is this vilest of suras?” With one leap he caught the daṇḍa with his left hand and let out a great laugh. Seeing Andhaka whirl his kāla-daṇḍa round and round, Yama, the son of Ravi, could not bear it and vanished from the field; and with Dharmarāja gone, Prahlāda scattered the deva army. In the same battle Varuṇa sent the daitya Bala to Yamapura, the city of Yama, with a blow of his fist. Having conquered the devas headed by Indra, the Rudras, Yama and Soma, Andhaka received the honour of the daityas and dānavas and returned to the earth. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 9–10)

His servants in the narakas

Sukeśī, son of the rākshasa king Vidyutkeśī, asked the maharshis in a forest of Magadha by what deeds beings come to the narakas, and the ṛshis answered him in detail. In their teaching the kiṅkaras and dūtas of Yama, his servants and messengers, carry out these torments:

• Those who with evil intent separate friends, husband and wife, brothers, master and servant, father and son, or the one who has a yajña performed and his priest, and the low man who promises his daughter to one and then gives her to another: the kiṅkaras of Yama cut them in two with saws.
• Those who, being impure, with mouth and hands unwashed after eating, look on purpose at Sūrya, Candra and the nakshatras: the kiṅkaras of Yama pull out the fire of their eyes.
• Those who listen patiently to blame of the guru, the devas, the brāhmaṇas and the Vedas: the dūtas of Yama drive red-hot nails into their ears.
• Those who pull down and destroy the water-sheds for travellers, the devakulas, temples, the trees of gardens, the houses of brāhmaṇas, assembly halls, maṭhas, wells and tanks: the dūtas of Yama peel off their skin with sharp knives as they wail aloud.
• Those who harm vipras and others for no purpose, as a pastime: the dūtas of Yama grind them to powder in stone mills and roast them on burning coals.
• Those who steal the wealth of others that was left in their care: while they cry out with tongues dried by hunger, the dūtas of Yama bind them in fetters and throw them into the naraka called Vṛścikāśana.
• Those who abandon the Vedas, the sacred fires, the gurus, the wife and the pitṛs: the kiṅkaras of Yama throw them down from mountain peaks.

(Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 12)

His tithi of sleep and his tree

When Sūrya enters Karkaṭa rāśi, the night of the devas, Dakshiṇāyana, begins, and in the month of Śrāvaṇa the devas sleep in order, one on each tithi: Viriñci (Brahmā) on pāḍyami, Viśvakarmā on dvitīyā, Pārvatī Devī on tṛtīyā, Vināyaka on caturthī, and on pañcamī, the fifth tithi, Yama Dharmarāja. After him come Kumārasvāmī on shashṭhī, Sūrya on saptamī, Kātyāyanī on ashṭamī, Mahālakshmī on navamī, the serpents who live on air on daśamī, and the Sādhyas on the ekādaśī of the dark fortnight.

In the month of Āśvayuja, when the lotus was born from the navel of Jagannātha, each of the devatās brought forth his own flower or tree: the kadamba from the hand of Kāmadeva, the dhattūra from the heart of Bhagavān Śiva, the khadira from the body of Brahmā, and, from the right side of Yama, the pālāśa. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 17–18)

His gifts to Kātyāyanī Devī

Conquered by the dānava Mahisha, the devas left their worlds and, with Brahmā in front, went to Bhagavān Vishṇu and Bhagavān Śiva. The tejas of the devas blazed out like the kālāgni and, in the āśrama of Kātyāyana Maharshi, joined with his tejas, and from that great light came forth Kātyāyanī Devī, shining like a thousand suns. Each part of her form came from the tejas of a deva: her face from the light of Śiva, her three eyes from the radiance of Agni, her hair from the tejas of Yama, and her eighteen arms from the tejas of Vishṇu. Then the devas gave her their weapons and ornaments: Śiva the triśūla, Śrī Hari the cakra, Varuṇa the śaṅkha, Agni the śakti, Vāyu the bow, Sūrya inexhaustible arrows and quivers, Indra the vajra and a bell, Yama the daṇḍa, Kubera the gadā, and Brahmā the akshamālā and the kamaṇḍalu.

In her battle with Mahisha the dānava changed form again and again. The Devī used on him the weapons the devas had given, and one by one they could not harm him: when Durgā threw the Kāladaṇḍa given by Yama, it broke into pieces. Then Durgā leapt from her lion onto Mahisha’s back, crushed him with her feet and cut off his head with the śūla.

When the Devī had slain Śumbha, all the devas, with Indra at their head and with Sūrya, Yama, the Maruts, the Aśvins and the Vasus, came to the Vindhya mountain, bowed in humility, joined their palms and praised Jagadambikā with a stotra (a hymn of praise). (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 19, 21, 30)

His gift to Skanda

At Kurukshetra, Hari, Hara, Brahmā, Indra and the munis consecrated Guha, Skanda, as leader of all the deva armies with the waters of the rivers and the seven seas. Bhagavān Śiva gave his son four of his chief pramathas, and Brahmā and all the devas then offered their own. Yama gave six attendants: Pramātha, Unmātha, Kālasena, Mahāmukha, Tālapatra and Nāḍījaṅgha. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 31)

Yama and the dānava Mura

Mura, son of Kaśyapa Maharshi and Danu, performed tapas to Brahmā for many years, fearing death, and won the vara that whomever he touched with his hand, even an immortal, would die in battle. He drove Indra out of Amarāvatī and took his throne, Airāvata and the vajra. Roaming the earth, he came to the bank of the Sarayū, where Raghu Mahārāja of the solar line was consecrated for a yajña, and commanded him either to fight or to give up the yajña. Then Vasishṭha, son of Mitra and Varuṇa, came to the dānava and said: “Hero of the daityas! What use is there in conquering human beings? If you truly wish to fight, bring Yama Dharmarāja under your control. If you conquer him, it will be as if you had conquered the whole earth.”

So Mura set out to conquer Dharmarāja, the Daṇḍapāṇi. Hearing that Mura, who could not be slain, was marching on him, Yama mounted his buffalo, went to Keśava, bowed, and told him of Mura’s outrages. Janārdana said: “Go, and send that rākshasa to me.” Yama returned quickly to his own city, and just as he arrived Mura came there too. Yama went out to meet him and said: “O lord of dānavas! I shall do as you wish. Tell me what I must do.”

Mura said: “Yama! From this moment you must stop taking away the lives of living beings, or I shall cut off your head and throw it away.” Yama answered: “If you protect me from the one who has authority over me, I will give up my duty and carry out your command.” Mura asked who that was, and promised to defeat him. Yama said: “I am under the control and command of Vishṇu, who dwells in Śvetadvīpa and bears the cakra and the gadā. Go to the Kshīra Samudra, the ocean of milk. There you will see Bhagavān Vishṇu, who pervades the world, the lord of the worlds.” Mura said: “I am going to that Keśava right now. Until I come back you must not carry out your duty of restraining human beings.” Yama answered: “Very well, I shall do as you wish. But by all means try to conquer him, the one who rules over me. Fight hard.”

So Mura came to the four-armed Bhagavān Vishṇu, as Yama had told him. Madhusūdana asked who he was, and Mura said he had come to fight. Bhagavān Vishṇu said: “If you have come to fight me, why is your heart pounding like that with fear? I do not fight with cowards who tremble like men stricken by fever.” Mura put his hand on his chest, saying, “Whose heart? Where? Why is it beating?”, and even as he spoke, Hari gently released his cakra, split Mura’s chest together with his hand, and slew him. All the devas praised Kamalanābha with cries of “Jaya! Jaya!”, and from that day Bhagavān Vishṇu was famed as Murāri, the enemy of Mura. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 34–35)

Yama’s city and his rods

The Purāṇa names Yama’s city and his rods in its speech. When Śukrācārya found that his daughter had been violated, he asked who was the wretch who played with a hissing mountain cobra, “that lowly one eager to go to Yama’s city”. In the war of Andhaka against Bhagavān Śiva, the daitya Hasti leapt at Nandīśvara and loosed arrows like Yama’s rods, riddling his body. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 40, 42)

When Bali ruled svarga

When Bali and his daityas had defeated the devas and driven them to Brahmaloka, Bali became master of svarga, and the daityas took the offices of the devas: Bali took Indra’s seat and became Indra, Bāṇa became Yama, Maya became Varuṇa, Rāhu became Candra, Hlāda became Agni, and Svarbhānu became Sūrya. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 48)

Bhagavān Śiva as Mahākāleśvara

On his tīrtha-yātrā Prahlāda came to Avantī, bathed in the Śiprā, and saw Mahākāla, whose abode is the cremation ground. There Śaṅkara protected the king named Śvetaki by burning Antaka, the destroyer of all beings. Prahlāda had darśana of Mahākāleśvara, who brings to an end Kāla and Antaka, the death of death, the one who put a nose-rope on Yama, of wondrous and varied deeds, the dweller in the cremation ground, the lord of the world, the auspicious bearer of the triśūla. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 57)

All arise from Bhagavān Vishṇu

At Badarikā, Prahlāda praised Nārāyaṇa: “O Garuḍadhvaja! Vibhu! Brahmā, Śiva, Indra, Agni, Yama, Varuṇa, Vāyu, Sūrya and Candra, and all this, moving and unmoving, are you.”

Bhagavān Vāmana told Bharadvāja, who had performed his upanayana, that the moving and unmoving beings of svarga, earth, sky and waters, Indra, Sūrya, Candra, Yama, the Vasus, Varuṇa, Agni and all the lokapālas, and everything from Brahmā down to a clump of grass, he had created to fill the earth, and that they arose from him. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 8, 62)

Yama and the devotees of Bhagavān Vishṇu

In Rasātala, Bali asked Prahlāda what is good for those who have fallen into the well of saṃsāra, and Prahlāda taught him. Saṃsāra is an ocean, tossed by the winds of the pairs of opposites, and the one boat for those who suffer in it is Bhagavān Vishṇu. “The steadfast who take refuge in Śrī Hari Nārāyaṇa, without beginning, middle or end, the giver of kalyāṇa (all that is auspicious), the Garuḍavāhana, the husband of Śrī, do not have to go to the city of Yama Dharmarāja. For Yama gives this order in the ears of his servants, who carry nooses in their hands: ‘Dūtas! Do not go near those who have taken refuge in Bhagavān Vishṇu. Mark this: you have authority only over those who are not Vaishṇavas, not over the devotees of Vishṇu.'”

A king of the Ikshvāku line, best of men and a supreme devotee, made the same decree: over the devotees of Vishṇu, Yama has no authority of any kind. And Prahlāda said: “Those who take refuge in Vishṇu Deva, who is devoted to his bhaktas, have neither the sight of Yama nor a dwelling in naraka.” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 67)

In the Saro Māhātmya

The Anyajanma kshetra. Bhagavān Śiva in the form of the Śarabha and Bhagavān Narasiṃha fell together into a lake, and on its bank Nārada Maharshi, in dhyāna under an aśvattha tree, saw Vishṇu take his four-armed form and Śiva the form of a liṅga. He praised them and named his āśrama the Anyajanma kshetra. A man of śraddhā who bathes there and gives tarpaṇa (offerings of water) to the pitṛs gains Mahendra-jñāna; and those who see the root of the aśvattha where Nārada always dwells, and bow to that tree, do not see the terrible sight of Yama. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 15)

The dog at the Sthāṇu tīrtha. King Vena, who had forbidden yajña and dāna and was slain by the munis, was born again among the mlecchas, wasting with disease. His son, the king, brought him to the Sthāṇu tīrtha in Kurukshetra and, as the devatās counselled, bathed every day in the tīrthas and sprinkled his father with their waters. A dog came to the hut where Vena was kept. In its former birth it had been an officer at the Sthāṇu maṭha, entrusted with the protection of the wealth of Kālasvāmī. At first he was strict and pure in guarding the deva-dravya, the wealth that belongs to the deva, and was honoured by all; in time his mind went bad, and he became the cause of the destruction of that wealth. He died far from dharma and went to the other world, and Yama saw him and at once sentenced him: “Go at once and be born as a dog.” Born as a dog in the Saugandhika forest, he later came to the Sannihita lake and, by the grace of Sthāṇvīśvara, dipped in the Sarasvatī and was freed of all pāpas. Seeing the dog, Vena in fear plunged into the Sthāṇu tīrtha, and the dog shook the water of the Sarasvatī from his body onto him. By the glory of the Sthāṇu tīrtha Vena crossed over and gained a divine body. In the stotra to Bhagavān Sthāṇu (Śiva) that followed, Vena said: “You are Indra, Yama, Varuṇa, Kubera, Vāyu, Rāhu and Agni,” and “You are Kāla, Yama, Agni, Daṇḍadhara, the holder of the rod of punishment.” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 26)

Sources

• Mārkaṇḍeya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 10–14, 74–75, 103
• Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 382
• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 102
• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skanda, Chapters 1–3
• Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 13–18
• Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 31
• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kedāra Khaṇḍa, Chapters 31–32
• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapter 41
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapters 102, 130
• Mahābhārata, Mahā Prasthānika Parva, Chapter 3
• Mahābhārata, Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 3
• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 8–10, 12, 17–19, 21, 23, 29–32, 34–35, 40, 42, 48, 57, 62, 67
• Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 15, 26