Mrtyu

Mṛtyu (), is a Sanskrit word meaning death. Mṛtyu, or Death, is often personified as the deities Mara (मर) and Yama (यम) in Dharmic religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Mṛtyu-māra as death in Buddhism or Māra, a "demon" of the Buddhist cosmology, the personification of Temptation. Yama () is the god of death and the underworld in Hinduism and Buddhism. Yama in Hinduism. Yama in Buddhism.

Etymology The Vedic mṛtyú, along with Avestan mərəθiiu and Old Persian məršiyu comes from the Proto-Indo-Iranian word for death, *mr̥tyú-, which is ultimately derived from the Indo-European root *mer- ("to die") and thus is further related to Ancient Greek μόρος and Latin mors.

Literature

Vedas Mrtyu is invoked in the hymns of the Rigveda:

Upanishads The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad (a mystical appendix to the Shatapatha Brahmana and likely the oldest of the Upanishads) has a creation myth where "Death" takes the shape of a horse, and includes an identification of the Ashvamedha horse sacrifice with the Sun:implicitly, in "verily, that Ashvamedha is that which gives out heat [tap-]"

Padma Purana Mrtyu fights in the war between the devas and the asuras in the legend of Jalandhara.

Mahabharata The Mahabharata references a legend regarding a dispute between Time, Mrityu, Yama, Ikshvaku, and a Brahmana. Mrityu is female in this legend.

See also Yama Yamaduta Chitragupta

Notes and references

External links SpokenSanskrit dictionary translation of Mrtyu