f Vedic thought. The
Iranian Yima also has a sister of like name, although she does not
appear till late in the literature.

That Yama's father is the sun, Vivasvant (Savitar, 'the artificer,'
Tvashtar, x. 10. 4-5),[5] is clearly enough stated in the
Rik; and that he was the first mortal, in the Atharvan. Men come from
Yama, and Yama comes from the sun as 'creator,' just as men elsewhere
come from Adam and Adam comes from the Creator. But instead of an
Hebraic Adam and Eve there are in India a Yama and Yam[=i], brother
and sister (wife), who, in the one hymn in which the latter is
introduced _(loc. cit.),_ indulge in a moral conversation on the
propriety of wedlock between brother and sister. This hymn is
evidently a protest against a union that was unobjectionable to an
older generation. In the Yajur Veda Yami is wife and sister both. But
sometimes, in the varying fancies of the Vedic poets, the artificer
Tvashtar is differentiated from Vivasvant, the sun; as he is in
another passage, where Tvashtar gives to Vivasvant his daughter, and
she is the mother of Yama[6].

That men are the children of Yama is seen in X. 13. 4, where it is
said, 'Yama averted death for the gods; he did not avert death for
(his) posterity.' In the Brahmanic tradition men derive from the sun
(T[=a]itt. S. VI. 5. 6. 2[7]) So, in the Iranian belief, Yima is
looked upon, according to some scholars, as the first man. The funeral
hymn to Yama is as follows:

Him who once went over the great mountains[8] and spied out
a path for many, the son of Vivasvant, who collects men,
King Yama, revere ye with oblations. Yama the first found us
a way ... There where our old fathers are departed.... Yama
is magnified with the Angirasas.... Sit here, O Yama, with
the Angirasas and with the fathers.... Rejoice, O king, in
this oblation. Come, O Yama, with the venerable Angirasas. I
call thy father, Vivasvant, sit down at this sacrifice.

And then, turning to the departed soul:

Go forth, go forth on the old paths where are gone our old
fathers; thou shalt see both joyous kings, Yama and God
Varuna. Unite with the fathers, with Yama, with the
satisfaction of desires, in highest heaven.... Yama will
give a resting place to this spirit. Run past, on a good
path, the two dogs of Saram[=a], the four-eyed, spotted
ones; go unto the fathers who rejoice with Yama.

Several things are here n