DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.638#0095
CHAPTER III
Yama, the First Man, and King
of the Dead
Burial Customs—Inhumation and Cremation—Yama the First Man—-
The Discoverer of Paradise—His Twin Sister—Persian Twin Deities—Yama
and Mitra—Yama as Judge of the Dead—The " Man in the Eye "—Brah-
man's Deal with Dharma-Yama—Sacrifice for a Wife—Story of Princess
Savitri—Her Husband's Fate—How she rescued his Soul from Yama—The
Heavens of Yama, Indra, and Varuna—Teutonic, Greek, and Celtic Heavens
—Paradise denied to Childless Men—Religious Need for a Son—Exposure of
Female Infants—Infanticide in Modern India—A Touching Incident.
In early Vedic times the dead might be either buried or
cremated. These two customs were obviously based
upon divergent beliefs regarding the future state of exis-
tence. A Varuna hymn makes reference to the "house
of clay ", which suggests that among some of the Aryan
tribes the belief originally obtained that the spirits of the
dead hovered round the place of sepulture. Indeed,
the dread of ghosts is still prevalent in India; they are
supposed to haunt the living until the body is burned.
Those who practised the cremation ceremony in early
times appear to have conceived of an organized Hades, to
which souls were transferred through the medium of fire,
which drove away all spirits and demons who threatened
mankind. Homer makes the haunting ghost of Patroklos
exclaim, "Never again will I return from Hades when 1
have received my meed of fire".1 The Vedic worshippers
1 Iliad, xxiii, 75.
88
Yama, the First Man, and King
of the Dead
Burial Customs—Inhumation and Cremation—Yama the First Man—-
The Discoverer of Paradise—His Twin Sister—Persian Twin Deities—Yama
and Mitra—Yama as Judge of the Dead—The " Man in the Eye "—Brah-
man's Deal with Dharma-Yama—Sacrifice for a Wife—Story of Princess
Savitri—Her Husband's Fate—How she rescued his Soul from Yama—The
Heavens of Yama, Indra, and Varuna—Teutonic, Greek, and Celtic Heavens
—Paradise denied to Childless Men—Religious Need for a Son—Exposure of
Female Infants—Infanticide in Modern India—A Touching Incident.
In early Vedic times the dead might be either buried or
cremated. These two customs were obviously based
upon divergent beliefs regarding the future state of exis-
tence. A Varuna hymn makes reference to the "house
of clay ", which suggests that among some of the Aryan
tribes the belief originally obtained that the spirits of the
dead hovered round the place of sepulture. Indeed,
the dread of ghosts is still prevalent in India; they are
supposed to haunt the living until the body is burned.
Those who practised the cremation ceremony in early
times appear to have conceived of an organized Hades, to
which souls were transferred through the medium of fire,
which drove away all spirits and demons who threatened
mankind. Homer makes the haunting ghost of Patroklos
exclaim, "Never again will I return from Hades when 1
have received my meed of fire".1 The Vedic worshippers
1 Iliad, xxiii, 75.
88