Yama Deepa Daana 1998

From the Skanda Purana

Yama Deepa Daana means "the gift of a lamp to Yama", the lord of death.

The Skanda Purana tells of the festival of lights that begins at the end of the dark half of Ashvina (Amanta; Kartika in Purnimanta). On the thirteenth day of that dark fortnight, it says, a lamp should be offered to Yama in the early part of the night, and by this an untimely death is turned away.

The Purana gives the reason in a short story. Long ago, on this very day, the infant son of a man named Hemanaka was saved from an early death by the mercy of the Lord. After this, Yama's own messengers came before their master. "O Yama," they said, "take pity on us, and tell us the way by which a person need not fall from life during this great festival."

Yama answered them with a prayer and a command. The prayer asks that Yama, the son of the Sun, be pleased, together with Death holding his noose and rod, with Time, and with Lakshmi, because a lamp has been offered on this thirteenth day.

Then Yama gave his order to the messengers. "Every year, on the thirteenth day of the dark half of Ashvina, in the early night, a person may say this prayer and light a fine lamp at the door of the house. Such a person must not be brought here during the festival of lights, even if an untimely death was due. Let my order be carried out."

So the Purana promises that whoever keeps a lamp burning at the door of the house with this prayer need not fear an untimely death during the Deepavali festival. It also says the lamp for Yama faces the south.

The Padma Purana agrees. It says that on the thirteenth day of the dark half of Kartika (Purnimanta; Ashvina in Amanta) a man should offer a light to Yama outside his house, and that by this an untimely death is avoided. It gives the same prayer, asking the Sun's son, with Death holding the noose and with his consort, to be pleased by this offering of light.

Another story

This is the katha traditionally told by families who keep this lamp; the sources that tell it do not name a scripture. A just king named Hima had a son he loved very much. When the prince was sixteen, astrologers warned that he would die of a snakebite on the fourth day after his wedding. The prince was married to a young woman whose stars were said to be lucky. On the fourth night she would not let him sleep. She lit many lamps all through the house and at the door of their room, and heaped her gold and silver ornaments and coins at the doorway. All night she told him stories and sang songs.

In the darkness Yama came in the form of a serpent. But the bright lamps and the shining gold dazzled him, and he could not go into the room. He settled on the heap of ornaments and listened to her stories and songs until dawn. When the morning came, the fated time had passed, and Yama went quietly away. The prince lived, saved by the courage and love of his bride. This, the families say, is why lamps are lit for Yama on this night.