'Yama' is a word within the language of Sanskrit which is described as one whose motion ( ya ) is limited ( ma ) and whose meaning is one who 'restrains' one who 'suppresses' one who 'curbs'.

'Yama' is also the great god of 'death' who is known as 'Yamaraj' the lord ( raja ) of restraint ( yama ) a cosmic administrator whose job it is to restrain those who misuse their independence.

 

'Yama' and 'Yamaraj' the great god of death who keeps the hell fires burning can be seen within many languages such as 'Greek' and 'German' and 'Norse' and also within the lands of Japan.

 

Japan is said to have imported some 80% of its gods from the lands of India and one such god is 'Yenma' an obvious corruption of 'Yama' and the Japanese god of death.

Japan also possesses 'Yomi' a name which describes the place one goes to at the time of death and as with 'Yenma' both words have their origin within 'Yama' the god of death.

 

Japan has been influenced by India for over two thousand years through Hinduism and Buddhism to such a degree that it was once a vegetarian country for over one thousand years.

 

China also models their god of death within the image and the language of the Vedas of ancient India as we see that their name for their king of the underworld is 'Yan'.

 

China and its god of death 'Yan' is a reflection of 'Yama' and we find that like 'Yama' he occupies a post and position within a celestial hierarchy and universal administration.

 

Chinese philosophy included reincarnation as the departed souls faced purgatory within the hells of 'Yan' before returning again to the earthly plane as humans, animals or insects.

 

Korea possesses the god of death 'Yeomra' a god who who oversees the purgatory process and decides their next destination and whose name is from 'Yama' the Vedic god of death.

 

Tibet possesses the god of death 'Yamantaka' a name which is composed of 'Yama' meaning 'death' and 'Antaka' meaning 'destroyer' as in the destroyer ( antaka ) of death ( yama ).

 

'Yama' can also be seen within Norse culture as 'Ymir' the first created being and also the Iranian 'Yemo' which journeys to Europe where it then becomes the word 'Gemini'.

 

"India was China's teacher in religion and imaginative literature, the world's teacher in trigonometry, quadratic equations, grammar, phonetics, Arabian Nights, animal fables, chess and philosophy" Lin Yutang.

 

"In the Vedic language we have the foundation, not only of the glowing legends of Hellas (Greece), but of the dark and sombre mythology of the Scandinavian and the Teuton" George W Cox.

“The civilizations of the Burmese and the Tibetans has been derived from the lands of India.”  –  Horace Hayman Wilson, professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University.