Yama

Encyclopedia : Y : YA : YAM : Yama

Tibetan Dharmapala at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois

A modern depiction of Yamaraja's Court, by Dominique Amendola

19th century kagamibuta netsuke depicting Enma

This article is about the deity Yama. For yama in the sense of a code of conduct, see Yamas. For the Yamá language see Mobilian Jargon.

Yama (Sanskrit: यम), also known as Yamaraja (यमराज) in India, Yanluo (閻羅) in China and Enma-O (閻魔大王) in Japan, is the lord of death, first recorded in the Vedas. The name Yanluo is a shortened Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit term Yama Rājā, or "King Yama". Enma Dai-Ō is a further transliteration, meaning "Great King Yama", where Enma mean Yama, Enma-O means Yama Raja and Enma Dai-O would be equivalent to Yama Maharaja.

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. In some passages, however, he is already regarded as the god of death. Yama's name can be interpreted to mean "twin", and in some myths he is paired with a twin sister Yamī.

Contents

1 Eastern religion

1.1 Yama in Hinduism
1.2 Yama in Buddhism and Chinese mythology

2 Yama's abode

2.1 Naraka (Hindu)
2.2 Naraka (Buddhist)
2.3 Di Yu (Chinese mythology) and Jigoku (Japanese mythology)

3 Related concepts

3.1 Yama and Ymir
3.2 Yama in Iranian mythology

4 Yama in popular culture
5 See also

Eastern religion

Yama in Hinduism

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 (Hinduism's triune Godhead). Three hymns (10, 14, and 35) in the Rig Veda Book 10 are addressed to him.

Yama in Buddhism and Chinese mythology

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. He has also spread far more widely, and is known in every country where Buddhism is practiced, including Tibet, China and Japan.

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 ideology. 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. Such punishment can be in boiling oil, etc. Even Mukti-yogyas (souls eligible for mukti or moksha), and Nitya-samsarins (forever transmigrating ones in Dvaita theology) can experience Naraka for expiation.

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 achieved its full result.

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 interchangable with the concept of Naraka.

Related concepts

Yama and 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.

Yama in Iranian mythology

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 popular culture

In the Spriggan manga, Yama was a virus programmed from ancient text that overran an ARCAM compound in the United States, brainwashing its occupants to kill intruders by flashing the words "KILL THEM ALL!"
In the Bleach manga, a Yama type being is occasionally seen pulling people through a portal to hell, in addition, the Shinigami themselves are 'death gods'.
In the Naruto manga, as well as a Hanuman type creature, and a charecter names after an asura, there is a Yama type creature that seems to be based upon classical Indian depictions.
In the comic book Micronauts, Yama was a warrior companion of the Wayfarer from the Microverse.
In the comic book Tex Willer, Yama is the son of Tex' archnemesis Mefisto.
In the anime and manga Dragon Ball, Enma (The Japanese name for Yama) is portrayed as a harried bureaucrat with a short temper, attended to by an army of office-worker oni. Though the ruler of the afterlife, he is surpassed in power by both the four Kaiō and the one remaining Kaiōshin (higher gods in whose hands rest the stewardship of the entire universe).
He is depicted in a similar fashion in YuYu Hakusho, as the pen-pushing ruler of the spirit world and a shadowy figure known for his temper; however, he is also the father of Koenma (literally, "Child-Enma"), who often runs the underworld in his father's stead. He is known as "Yemma" (based on an older Japanese pronunciation) in the English-dubbed Dragon Ball Z anime, and Yama in the English version of YuYu Hakusho.
In Mahou Sentai Magiranger, the main villain of the series, N-Ma, is derived from Enma's name; both being Hell Gods.
Yama, identified as a "Chinese spirit of the underworld", appears played by Todd Newton in the episode Dead Man Dating of the television series Charmed.
Emma-Ō appears as a character in the arcade game Genpei ToumaDen.
Yama is a minor character in the anime and manga One Piece who commands Eneru's army.
The Jigoku Shoujo anime focuses on a 'hell girl' and concepts similar to Naraka, and the main charecter is known as Ai Enma.
Yama is a major character in the science fiction novel Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. In this novel certain colonists from Earth gain control of high technology on a faraway planet and rule it as Hindu gods. Yama is the genius behind most of the technology.
Yama appears in the novel Belaku tanda Balaka by TaRaSu.