The Religions of India: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris JastrowHopkins, Edward Washburn
Religion
The Religions of India: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris Jastrow
Hopkins, Edward Washburn
India -- Religion
Yama is not mentioned elsewhere[14] in the Rig Veda, except in the
statement that 'metres rest on Yama,' and in the closing verses of the
burial hymn: "For Yama press the _soma_, for Yama pour oblation; the
sacrifice goes to Yama; he shall extend for us a long life among the
gods," where the pun on Yama (_yamad á_), in the sense of 'stretch
out,' shows that as yet no thought of 'restrainer' was in the poet's
mind, although the sense of 'twin' is lost from the name.
In recent years Hillebrandt argues that because the Manes are
connected with Soma (as the moon), and because Yama was the first to
die, therefore Yama was the moon. Ehni, on the other hand, together
with Bergaigne and some other scholars, takes Yama to be the sun.
Müller calls him the 'setting-sun[15].' The argument from the Manes
applies better to the sun than to the moon, but it is not conclusive.
The Hindus in the Vedic age, as later, thought of the Manes living in
stars, moon, sun, and air; and, if they were not good Manes but dead
sinners, in the outer edge of the universe or under ground. In short,
they are located in every conceivable place[17].
The Yama, 'who collects people,' has been rightly compared with the
Yima, who 'made a gathering of the people,' but it is doubtful whether
one should see in this an Aryan trait; for [Greek: Aidaes Agaesilaos]
is not early and popular, but late (Aeschylean), and the expression
may easily have arisen independently in the mind of the Greek poet.
From a comparative point of view, in the reconstruction of Yama there
is no conclusive evidence which will permit one to identify his
original character either with sun or moon. Much rather he appears to
be as he is in the Rig Veda, a primitive king, not historically so,
but poetically, the first man, fathered of the sun, to whom he
returns, and in whose abode he collects his offspring after their
inevitable death on earth. In fact, in Yama there is the ideal side of
ancestor-worship. He is a poetic image, the first of all fathers, and
hence their type and king. Yama's name is unknown outside of the
Indo-Iranian circle, and though Ehni seeks to find traces of him in
Greece and elsewhere,[18] this scholar's identifications fail, because
he fails to note that similar ideas in myths are no proof of their
common origin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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