Himalayan Art Resources

Subject: Deva Yama

Hindu Gods Index

Subjects, Topics & Types:
- Description (below)
- Guardians of the Ten Directions
- Confusions (see below): Yamari, Yamantaka
- Others...

Videos:
- Yama Confusions
- Yama, Yamantaka, Yamari & Vajrabhairava

Deva Yama belongs to a set of ten Indian gods commonly known as the Guardians of the Ten Directions. The ten are frequently found as secondary figures in many mandalas of all four Tantra classifications. Yama is associated with the southern direction, blue in colour, holding a stick and riding a buffalo.

This Deva Yama is not the same as the Yama depicted in the Hell realms of the Wheel of Life paintings or sometimes believed to hold the Wheel of Life - the Demon of Impermanence. Nor is he the Yama known as Yama Dharmaraja of the Vajrabhairava cycle of Tantric practice.

Yama Confusions:
- Deva Yama (Guardians of the Ten Directions)
- Yama Dharmaraja (Wheel of Life)
- Yama Dharmaraja (Dharmapala, Vajrabhairava Tantra)
- Yama Dharmaraja (Buddha, Bardo Thodal of Karma Lingpa)
- Vajra Yama (Paramadya Samksiptakula Mandala)
- Yamari (Yamari Tantras)
- Yamantaka (Ten Wrathful Ones)
- Demon of Impermanence (Wheel of Life)

Mandalas that include Yama or the Guardians of the Ten Directions:
- Medicine Buddha
- Pancha Raksha Devi
- Sitatapatra
- Abhisambodi Vairochana (solitary Yama)
- Trailokyavijaya (solitary Yama)
- Paramadya Samksiptakula (Vajra Yama with Dorje Duma)
- Paramadya Vajrasattva Paramadya Samksiptakula
- Sarvavid Vairochana (solitary Yama)
- Chakravarti Guna (solitary Yama)
- Vajrapani & 10 Dikpala (solitary Yama)
- Trailokyavijaya & 8 Mahadeva (solitary Yama)
- Navoshnisha Shakyamuni (solitary Yama)
- Dharmadhatu Vagishvara (solitary Yama)
- Samgrhitakula Buddhasamayoga Vajrasattva
- Others...

Jeff Watt 7-2022