Yama vs Yima

God of death and, in later tradition, the formal judge of the dead. The Rigveda names Yama as the first mortal to die, who found the path to the afterlife that all who follow him must travel; later texts make him ruler of Yamaloka and keeper of cosmic and moral order.

Yama, twin brother of Yami and son of the sun god Vivasvat, was the first mortal to die, and in dying he discovered the path to the afterlife. Later tradition made him the formal ruler of Yamaloka and judge of the dead, weighing each soul's deeds against dharma.

In the Rigveda, Yama is described as the first mortal to die, and in doing so, he discovered the path to the world of the dead that all mortals afterward must follow. He is the twin brother of Yami, and the Rigveda preserves a striking dialogue hymn between them in which Yami urges Yama toward union to continue humankind, which Yama refuses on grounds of the impropriety of union between twins — one of the earliest surviving explorations of incest taboo in Indian literature.

The first king, son of Vivahvant, under whose rule there was neither cold nor heat, age nor death; in the Vendidad he builds an enclosure to preserve life from devastating winters, and in the Shahnameh, as Jamshid, he loses the royal Glory through pride.

Son of Vivanghat (Vivahvant), the first mortal with whom Ahura Mazda conversed before Zarathushtra (Vendidad 2.2).

In the Vendidad (Fargard 2), Ahura Mazda first asks Yima, son of Vivanghat, to be the bearer of his religion; Yima declines but agrees to rule and protect the world, promising that under him there will be neither cold wind nor hot wind, disease nor death. Given a golden seal and a gold-inlaid dagger, he enlarges the earth three times as it fills with people and animals, calling on Spenta Armaiti to stretch wider. Warned of terrible winters to come, he builds the Var, an enclosure in which the best of every kind of person, animal, plant, and fire is preserved.