Yama is regarded as a god, although in the Rig Veda he is called only ‘king’ (X. 14. 1, 11); but later he is expressly a god, and this is implied, as Ehni shows, even in the Rig Veda:  ‘a god found Agni’ and ‘Yama found Agni’ (X. 51. 1 ff.).  His primitive nature was that of the ‘first mortal that died,’ in the words of the Atharva Veda.  It is true, indeed, that at a later period even gods are spoken of as originally ’mortal,’[1] but this is a conception alien from the early notions of the Veda, where ‘mortal’ signifies no more than ‘man.’  Yama was the first mortal, and he lives in the sky, in the home that “holds heroes,” i.e., his abode is where dead heroes congregate (I. 35. 6; X. 64. 3)[2].  The fathers that died of old are cared for by him as he sits drinking with the gods beneath a fair tree (X. 135. 1-7).  The fire that devours the corpse is invoked to depart thither (X. 16. 9).  This place is not very definitely located, but since, according to one prevalent view, the saints guard the sun, and since Yama’s abode in the sky is comparable with the sun in one or two passages, it is probable that the general idea was that the departed entered the sun and there Yama received him (I. 105. 9, ’my home is there where are the sun’s rays’; X. 154. 4-5, ’the dead shall go, O Yama, to the fathers, the seers that guard the sun’).  ‘Yama’s abode’ is the same with ‘sky’ (X. 123. 6); and when it is said, ’may the fathers hold up the pillar (in the grave), and may Yama build a seat 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