less authoritative than the other textual
category, theshrutisor “heard” texts. This
smrti is ascribed to the sage Yajnavalkya
and is an example of one of the Dharma
Shastras, which were manuals prescribing
rules for correct human behavior and ideal
social life. Unlike the Dharma Sutras,
which are ascribed to recognizable indi-
viduals, the Dharma Shastras are usually
ascribed to mythic sages, as a strategy to
reinforce the authority of these texts. The
extant text is about a thousand verses,
divided into sections on religious custom
(achara), the administration of justice
(vyavahara), and expiation (praya-
shchitta). Estimates on its date of compo-
sition range from the first to the sixth
century, but it is clearly later than the
Manu Smrtibecause some parts of the
middle section are far more developed.
The Yajnavalkya Smrtiwas the subject of
numerous commentaries, one of which,
the Mitakshara, was given the status of a
legal code for the greater part of India dur-
ing the British empire.
Yajnopavit
Another name for the sacred thread. See
sacred thread.
Yajur Veda
Traditionally, the third of the four Vedas.
As with the Rg Vedaand the Sama Veda,
the Yajur Veda was associated with sacri-
ficial rituals, and the text itself consists
mainly of the mantras to be uttered
while the sacrifice was being carried
out. The Yajur Veda exists in five major
recensions, of which four are “black”
and one is “white.” Their differences
stem from the placement of explanatory
notes on the mantras and their signifi-
cance: The recensions of the Black Yajur
Vedacontain these notes in the text
itself, whereas the White Yajur Veda
gathers these notes into an appendix
known as a Brahmana—namely, the
Shatapatha Brahmana—and this
Brahmana literature becomes the next
major stratum of Vedic texts.
Yaksha
(feminine yakshi) A class of minor
deitieswho are essentially nature spirits
and are often narrowly associated with
particular places. Yakshas are reckoned
as the attendants of the deity Kubera,
who is regarded as the guardian of the
northern direction and the lord of
wealth. The yakshas are generally
regarded as beneficent toward human
beings, and because of their associa-
tions with the generative power of
nature and with Kubera’s wealth, they
are often regarded as bestowing wealth
and fertility. Yakshas have a long history
of appearances in Indian sectarian liter-
ature, where they are either portrayed as
guardian spirits or as examples of
depravity. Although it is fairly old, the
only extensive monograph on yakshas is
Ananda Coomaraswamy, Yaksas, 1971.Yama
God of death and Death personified. Yama
is one of the eight Guardians of the
Directions, associated with the southern
direction, and for this reason, the south is
considered an inauspicious direction.
Yama first appears in the Vedas, the oldest
Hindu religious texts, where he is
described as the first mortal. By virtue of
being the first person to suffer death, he
was seen as presiding over the World of the
Fathers, where the virtuous dead feasted
and enjoyed themselves (much as they
had on earth). As the tradition developed,
conceptions of Yama shifted in turn, until
he was considered the judge of the dead,
ruling mainly over the regions of punish-
ment, primarily hells, in which people suf-
fered until they were reborn. Yama is often
portrayed holding a noose, with which he
draws out the person’s spirit at the time of
death and leads it bound to judgment.
Modern poster images of Yama show him
seated on a throne as king of the dead,
majestic and dark in color; to his left sits
the scribe Chitragupta, who keeps a ledger
book recording the actions of human
beings. Yama’s role as the judge of the dead
makes him greatly feared in everyday
Hindu life. Ideally, this fear can have a pos-Yajnopavit