Yama’s Tapas and Dharmeśvara
In Kāśī, Yama did long tapas (austerity) before Devī Viśālākshī. A Liṅga as bright as the sun appeared before him, and Bhagavān Śiva came out of it. Bhagavān Śiva made Yama Dharmarāja, the ruler of dharma over all beings, for good. The Kāśī Khaṇḍa tells this in Chapters 78 and 79 of the Uttarārdha. It also tells of two parrots who remembered their past births, and of Indra’s bath at the Dharmeśvara Tīrtha.
Yama’s need to be cleansed
Yama is the ruler of death and the guardian of dharma. He carried the weight of having been involved in the killing of Vṛtra, the great asura whose death at Indra’s hands brought the gravest pātaka (great sin), the pāpa of brahmahatyā (killing a brāhmaṇa). Yama wanted to be fully cleansed, and he wanted his place as Dharmarāja over all beings to be confirmed. For this he chose Kāśī, the one city where no karma remains and where the puṇya (merit) of all tīrthas is present. He did his tapas there. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 78)
The tapas before Viśālākshī
Yama took his place before the shrine of Devī Viśālākshī, the wide-eyed Devī, one of the oldest Śakti presences in Kāśī. There he began austerities of great severity. The Kāśī Khaṇḍa says they lasted four Yugas in all. In each stage his tapas became harder. In one stage he ate only fallen leaves. Then he took only water. Then he stood on one leg. In the last stage he neither ate, nor drank, nor moved at all. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 78)
The Dharmeśvara Liṅga appears
At the end of this great tapas, a Liṅga of clear crystal, shining like the disc of the sun, appeared of itself before Yama from the holy ground of Kāśī. Its light filled the whole holy place. Bhagavān Śiva then came out of the Liṅga and spoke to Yama with great love, saying that he was pleased. This self-arisen (svayambhū) Liṅga was given the name Dharmeśvara, the ruler of Dharma, in honour of the deva who had pleased it by his tapas. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 78)
The boons given to Yama
Bhagavān Śiva gave Yama the full authority of Dharmarāja. He confirmed Yama’s rule over all beings in the matter of death, karma and the giving of future births. No creature that had finished its karma could pass by Yama’s judgement. Bhagavān Śiva also cleansed Yama of the pāpa (sin) that still clung to him. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 78)
The boon for the two parrots
Among the things Yama asked of Bhagavān Śiva was a vara (a boon) for two orphaned parrots that had been near the place of his tapas. These parrots could remember crores of their earlier births in every kind of body: as insects, fish, birds, animals and human beings. They told the story of those past lives before the ṛshis who were gathered there. Yama asked that they be given moksha (liberation), and Bhagavān Śiva gave it. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 79)
Indra’s bath at Dharmeśvara
Indra, the king of the devas, had himself done the pāpa of brahmahatyā by killing Vṛtra. Like Yama, he came to Kāśī and bathed at the Dharmeśvara Tīrtha, the holy pool near the Liṅga, to be cleansed of it. The Kāśī Khaṇḍa says that the water of this tīrtha, made holy by Yama’s tapas, has the power to destroy even the gravest brahmahatyā-pāpa. The festival day of Dharmeśvara is the bright eighth day of the month of Kārttika. (Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 79)
Sources
- Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Uttarārdha, Chapters 78–79