DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.640#0044
ON THE HINDOO RELIGION. xxxi
pooranus for the number of wars and intrigues in which he has
been engaged. His throne changes masters at the end of seventy-
one yoogus of the gods. Jupiter was called the king of heaven,
and the Fulminator: Indrii's names, Divus-putee and Viijree,
are significant of similar offices.
5. Ynmu, the Indian Pluto, is a dark-green man, clothed in
red, with inflamed eyes; he sits on abuifalo, has a crown on his
head, and holds in his right hand a club with which he drives
out the soul from the body, and punishes the wicked. This is
his form of terror, as king of the souls of the dead; but he is
also worshipped in a form less terrific, which he is said to assume
when he passes a sentence of happiness on the meritorious. Be-
side his annual festival, he is worshipped on other occasions;
and receives the homage of the Hindoos in their daily ablutions.
There are several remarkable coincidences between Yumu and
Pluto, as will be seen by comparing the fables respecting the
latter and those in vol. i. page 75. of this work: the images of
both ' Grin horribly a ghastly smile.' Pluto had a rod in his
hand; Yumu is called Dundii-dhuru, because he holds in his
hand the rod of punishment. Yumu is the shraddhii devii, or
the regent of funeral rites; and the institution of funeral obse-
quies is ascribed to Pluto. The dead, in going to Yumii's judg-
ment-hall, cross Voitftrunee, the Indian styxu; the waters of
which, like those of Phlegethon, the fourth river of hell which
the dead were obliged to cross, are said to be boiling hot. Yumu
has several assistants, like Minos, who keep a register of human
actions. There is something in the story inserted in vol. i. page
83, which seems to coincide with Pluto's being obliged to steal
his wife Proserpine, because he could obtain no other goddess,
his visage being so horrible and his habitation so gloomy. The
Hindoos consider hell as situated at the southern extremity of
the earth; the Greeks and Romans thought it was a large sub-
terraneous spot in the earth.
■
* This river encircled the infernal regions nine times: Voiturunee
encircles this hall six times.
pooranus for the number of wars and intrigues in which he has
been engaged. His throne changes masters at the end of seventy-
one yoogus of the gods. Jupiter was called the king of heaven,
and the Fulminator: Indrii's names, Divus-putee and Viijree,
are significant of similar offices.
5. Ynmu, the Indian Pluto, is a dark-green man, clothed in
red, with inflamed eyes; he sits on abuifalo, has a crown on his
head, and holds in his right hand a club with which he drives
out the soul from the body, and punishes the wicked. This is
his form of terror, as king of the souls of the dead; but he is
also worshipped in a form less terrific, which he is said to assume
when he passes a sentence of happiness on the meritorious. Be-
side his annual festival, he is worshipped on other occasions;
and receives the homage of the Hindoos in their daily ablutions.
There are several remarkable coincidences between Yumu and
Pluto, as will be seen by comparing the fables respecting the
latter and those in vol. i. page 75. of this work: the images of
both ' Grin horribly a ghastly smile.' Pluto had a rod in his
hand; Yumu is called Dundii-dhuru, because he holds in his
hand the rod of punishment. Yumu is the shraddhii devii, or
the regent of funeral rites; and the institution of funeral obse-
quies is ascribed to Pluto. The dead, in going to Yumii's judg-
ment-hall, cross Voitftrunee, the Indian styxu; the waters of
which, like those of Phlegethon, the fourth river of hell which
the dead were obliged to cross, are said to be boiling hot. Yumu
has several assistants, like Minos, who keep a register of human
actions. There is something in the story inserted in vol. i. page
83, which seems to coincide with Pluto's being obliged to steal
his wife Proserpine, because he could obtain no other goddess,
his visage being so horrible and his habitation so gloomy. The
Hindoos consider hell as situated at the southern extremity of
the earth; the Greeks and Romans thought it was a large sub-
terraneous spot in the earth.
■
* This river encircled the infernal regions nine times: Voiturunee
encircles this hall six times.