Yama is the Hindu god of death and justice, responsible for judging the dead and administering punishment to sinners in his abode, Naraka. Also known as Kala and Dharmaraja, he is the son of the sun god Surya and Sanjna, and twin brother of the river goddess Yami. In the Vedic tradition he is described as the first mortal to die and to find the way to the world of the dead, becoming as a result the ruler of the departed, and he is counted among the Lokapalas as guardian of the southern direction. His cult and iconography spread well beyond Hinduism: Buddhist, Chinese, Tibetan, Korean and Japanese traditions all adopted him, in various forms, as a king or judge of the underworld. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Attestation
Veneration TodayActively venerated in a living tradition 3 HistoricityNot a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being 1 Function
Domain / Function Yama
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Connections
Sources
1. The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend
Anthony S. Mercatante, revised and expanded by James R. Dow, Facts on File
2. Yama, Structured Record (Wikidata Q)
3. Encyclopedia of Hinduism
Denise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.), Routledge
Wikipedia, "Yama"
Garuda Purana
AnonymousSacred to This Deity: Naraka
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