This piece is an attempt to understand the personality of Yama (death) in the backdrop of recent controversy caused by an article by an eminent scholar (Sudheer Chandra, in Hindi daily Janasatta 31 January 2010) where it was pointed out that Yama got enthralled by the flawless beauty of Savitri and granted several boons under her ravishing spell.
Before, coming to the discussion regarding Yama’s character as depicted in Sanskrit texts let me first probe little further whether that very Mahabharata episode incorporated in the Vana Parvan gives any such clue which might have caused Chandra to reach that conclusion. As for as, my reading of this narrative is concerned, for any modern mind this text offers ample testimony for any such interpretation, viz. (a) Yama not only comes in person to take away the life of Satyawan but also reveals his identiy and intentions before Savitri (which surprises her), (b) after having taken away Satyawan’s life Yama does not proceeds toward his quarter invisibly (which is considered to be the quality of gods) rather starts moving slowly in the direction of south and allows Savitri, enough space,to follow him, (c) moreover, Yama not only finds Savitri’s words as water to a thirsty person but he also confesses that he has never heard such words before as of those uttered by Savitri.I think these are the points which might have misled Chandra (I don’t think any modern mind can disregard these points if he/she solely rests his/ her interpretation of Yama’ personality on that very
Mahabharata episode only) to come forth with a sexually tinged exposition of this episode.
However, it’s my contention that in order to make his/her version of interpretation of some mythological character more logical, one is required to make use of all sorts of possible available materials critically so that one could do justice to the personality of the character in question. With regard to the case of Yama, in order to draw a coherent picture of his behavioral pattern, one needs to look at three major episodes available in Sanskrit texts, viz. Yama-Yami dialogue as reported in the 10th hymn of the X book of Rigveda, Katah Upanishad and famous Savitri episode of Mahabharata. Here it is worth mentioning that in all the three texts Yama’s character shows two sharply distinguishable features (a) a harsh follower and practitioner of Rita (a Vedic concept which means ‘natural order’, this concept is later on taken over by the word Dharma) with a strict sense of justice, and (b) a benevolent and liberal soul who is easy to please. Rest of this piece will be devoted to highlight these two above mentioned qualities of Yama.
In the Yama-Yami dialogue of Rigveda it is reported that Yami, twin sister of Yama, becomes possessed of love for Yama and tried to seduce him of that following was the Yama’s reply;
They stand not still, they never close their eyelids
Those sentinels of gods who wander round us
Not me, go quickly, wanton, with another
Whirl round with him like the wheels of the chariot
Despite this Yami does not leave him rather starts instigating him and tries to arouse his manliness by calling him a weakling, nevertheless, Yama maintained the decorum as required by Rita, and kept on emphasizing the improper nature of the demand which Yami placed before him.
If we analyze the above quoted verse carefully two important points emerge which endorses my contention regarding Yama’s character. Firstly, he tries to make Yami realize the basic fact that they are constantly being guarded by the ever awaken divine sentinels so that one’s indulgence in any such improper act will considered to be the violation of Rita and will cause severe punishment. Secondly, Yama, sets her free to go with anyone, which brings his liberal attitude towards human relationships in light (viewed in the backdrop of multitude of honour killings in some parts of this country Yama’s attitude appears to be strikingly modern and liberal).
Now coming to the narrative given in Katha Upanishad, Yama grants three boons to Nachiketas as he had stayed in his house for three nights without having food and water. This story takes a very dramatic turn at the point, when Nachiketas urged Yama to explain the truth regarding the nature of existence after death, as the third boon. Before conceding to expound this secret and complex situation to Nachiketas, Yamas in his typical bargainer’s style tries to coax Nachiketas with several other attractive offers (including damsels unobtainable to humans which might be taken to be an improper offer considering the tender age of Nachiketas), but Yama being the hardcore adherent of Dharma wanted to be sure whether Nachiketas understands the subtle difference between so called good and gratifying or not and attaches value to good over gratifying or not.
Granting boons magnanimously, while maintaining the basic natural order seems to be part and parcel of Yama’s character, but its not always easy to do justice to both the aspects of one’s character on account of their highly demanding nature as a slight overdoing may cause grave violation to the other. This is what exactly is evidenced in this Savitri episode.
Now, one may ask what made Yama to do this overdoing.
After a careful reading of the Savitri episode of Mahabharata, it appears to be the case that this very episode comes under the section where the holy sage Markandeya was relating virtue eulogistic legends to console the banished Pandavas, thus the narrative itself is structured in such a way that Yama had to be defeated by the dint of Savitri’s Pati Vrat Dharma (Sheer devotion to her husband). If we see a generous and judicious character like Yama portrayed in such type of narrative structure its not difficult to understand that why this all happened in such a way, in other words, Yama could have only been defeated by becoming over generous. Moreover, we find that Savitri tries her best to invoke the most liberal humane side of Yama by appreciating him for his hardcore judicious stance which Yama, as expected, found very attractive.
Apart from these, a section of Maitrayani Shakha of black Yajurrveda narrates a fascinating story of the death of Yama and subsequently the grief of Yami, alludes to a kind of interpretation from where Yama appears to be a mortal who got elevated to the position of death god, on account of his being ardent practitioner of Dharma and his judicious nature, after his death.
Thus in the light of above mentioned facts it’s hard (if not impossible, as one must allow scope for multiple readings) to accept any kind of sexual tinge in the Savitri-Yama episode (if we allow such sexual interpretations without sufficient textual support one must be ready to confront a situation when citing Yama’s generosity for Nachiketas someone may adorn him with the tag of homosexual).
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