eat for thee there'
(X. 18. 13), this refers, not to the grave, but to heaven. And it is
said that 'Yama's seat is what is called the gods' home' (X. 135.
7)[3]. But Yama does not remain in the sky. He comes, as do other
Powers, to the sacrifice, and is invited to seat himself 'with
Angirasas and the fathers' at the feast, where he rejoices with them
(X. 14. 3-4; 15. 8). And either because Agni devours corpses for Yama,
or because of Agni's part in the sacrifice which Yama so joyfully
attends, therefore Agni is especially mentioned as Yama's friend (X.
21. 5), or even his priest (_ib_. 52. 3). Yama stands in his relation
to the dead so near to death that 'to go on Yama's path' is to go on
the path of death; and battle is called 'Yama's strife.' It is even
possible that in one passage Yama is directly identified with death
(X. 165. 4, 'to Yama be reverence, to death'; I. 38. 5; _ib_. 116.
2)[4]. There is always a close connection between Varuna and Yama, and
perhaps it is owing to this that parallel to 'Varuna's fetters' is
found also 'Yama's fetter,' i.e., death (x. 97. 16).

As Yama was the first to die, so was he the first to teach man the
road to immortality, which lies through sacrifice, whereby man attains
to heaven and to immortality. Hence the poet says, 'we revere the
immortality born of Yama' (i. 83. 5). This, too, is the meaning of the
mystic verse which speaks of the sun as the heavenly courser 'given by
Yama,' for, in giving the way to immortality, Yama gives also the
sun-abode to them that become immortal. In the same hymn the sun is
identified with Yama as he is with Trita (i. 163. 3). This particular
identification is due, however, rather to the developed pantheistic
idea which obtains in the later hymns. A parallel is found in the next
hymn: "They speak of Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni ... that which is one,
the priests speak of in many ways, and call him Agni, Yama, Fire" (or
Wind, i. 164. 46).

Despite the fact that one Vedic poet speaks of Yama's name as 'easy to
understand' (x. 12. 6), no little ingenuity has been spent on it, as
well as on the primitive conception underlying his personality.
Etymologically, his name means Twin, and this is probably the real
meaning, for his twin sister Yami is also a Vedic personage. The later
age, regarding Yama as a restrainer and punisher of the wicked,
derived the name from _yam_ the restrainer or punisher, but such an
idea is quite out of place in the province o