In a new biography of the god, Yama is not the grim reaper but a compassionate guide

Yama was well settled in heaven. He also got married. Dhumorna was a good wife, hospitable to all who came to heaven.They had many children and one adopted daughter named Sunita. The name meant “one who is well guided, well behaved, wise”. Through her he had a grandson, Vena.

How did Yama find the path to heaven? How did he get there? What were his trials and tribulations along the way, if indeed there were any? Did he perform yajna, as mortals do, to reach the heaven that he would rule? We do not know. Yama did not like to talk of his achievements. He never told anyone what transpired after his death. Having traversed an unknown path and reached the abode that would be his kingdom, he made it a beautiful and welcoming place for all the souls that came to rest there before being born on earth again. He was the guide, leader and protector of the netherworld. There were three heavens, two under the rule of Surya – or Savitr, as one form of Yama’s father was called – and one under the reign of Yama.

Yama’s kingdom was the highest, lying far beyond Surya’s, in a direction between south and southwest. It was studded with diamonds all through and had four gateways. It was surrounded by high ramparts of more than a thousand yojanas. It had beautiful gardens and parks, and birds of every imaginable hue. In every part of the city there were pretty maidens and choristers.

There are three heavens up there
two belong to Savitr, adjacent to each other
Yama’s world is the third, the home of heroes …

Great sages were living in the third heaven, in the court of Yama, and singing his praises. That is how Yama acquired the name Pitrapati, father of our ancestors. Yama could not be a god because he had died. But of all the kings, he was perhaps the most enviable, for he had a galaxy of wise men and sages in his court, attending to him. All the great men who trod the earth were now in heaven singing Yama’s praises.

Yama’s wife was gentle and good-natured. She is said to have risen from a funeral pyre. Her name, Dhumorna, carried the meaning of a shroud of smoke. She was wispy, like smoke, beautiful to behold and of the hue of a blue lotus. She carried her position of being the First Lady of the third heaven lightly. In fact, like her husband, she wanted to be the perfect host to all the great men and women who went from the mortal world to spend time in Yama’s court. So she always carried in her left hand a twig from the matulanga tree. Matulanga is a citrus fruit resembling a large lemon with a thick, green rind. It wards off ill health and its health benefits are equated to the gooseberry’s.

Dhumorna accompanied Yama to all important events. They would ride Yama’s buffalo, Mahisha, when they travelled. When Vishnu married Lakshmi, their wedding was a major event in the heavens. All the gods, decked in their best finery, went to attend the wedding. There Dhumorna met many other women, including Arundhati, Shandili and Lopamudra. They met in an extravagant hall, which had long rows of thousands of pillars embedded with jewels. It was dotted with many canopies of plantain trees under which the women sat and chatted. Many kalpatarus, or heavenly wish-yielding trees, offered their sweet, fragrant flowers to the gathering. Dhumorna, who loved her husband dearly, thought all those many bejewelled lamps of light still fell short of his resplendence. Elephants guarded the eight directions. All the rivers flowed in to fill the pots with their waters which the elephants raised with their trunks to shower down as ablution on the couple. Music and drums played, the moon shone brighter than ever and joy was in the air. Dhumorna caught her breath as she watched Lakshmi sitting on the throne and the wedding ceremony begin. Dhumorna was a romantic.

It was said that Yama acquired many more wives. Dhumorna could not care less. They all said many things. They even said Yama was always in the company of women and not a very serious being. Dhumorna paid no attention to such talk. She herself was called by many different names – Shyamala, the dark one, or Urmila. In some parts of the mortal world she came to be known as Aiyo. So much so that elders would tell their children, “Hush! Do not say Aiyo, then Yama’s wife will think you are calling her and Yama will come with her,” meaning death would come. Sushila and Hemamala were some of her other names.

There is a story of a mortal called Vijaya who is said to have seen Yama on earth. She was very scared at this, as all mortals fear death. But discovering Yama’s good nature, she agreed to marry him. On her arrival at Yama’s abode, he told her that she was free to do anything, but “Do not ever venture into the southern quarter of the kingdom.”

Vijaya soon became convinced that she just had to go to the southern quarter. “Maybe he has another wife,” she thought. On going there, she found many people suffering there, as that was hell. One among them was her own mother. She then asked Yama for her release. Yama told her that he had to have his count – if anyone was willing to fill in for her, he could let her go. Eventually they found someone and Vijaya got her mother released.

Dhumorna sighed. The story of Vijaya, which she too had heard, was born in a period when Yama was made the lord of naraka, or hell. When he got married to Dhumorna, he was the king who guided the dead to the land of peace and joy, called Yamapuri, where they rested till they were to be born again. He was not associated with torture, fear and hells as later mythologies tended to describe him. Vijaya was a character that emerged in these later times. That was why Dhumorna dismissed the story of Vijaya.

Excerpted with permission from The Immortal King: Yama, Sudhamahi Regunathan, Bloomsbury India.