lder, in accordance with which (_ib_. 49) all the world is hounded on
by Yama's messengers, and comes to his abode. His home[74] in the
south is now located as being at a distance of 86,000 leagues over a
terrible road, on which passes a procession of wretched or happy
mortals, even as they have behaved during life; for example, if one
has generously given an umbrella during life he will have an umbrella
on this journey, etc. The river in Yama's abode is called Pushpodaka,
and what each drinks out of it is according to what he deserves to
drink, cool water or filth (_ib._ 46, 58).[75] In the various
descriptions it is not strange to find discordant views even in
portions belonging approximately to the same period. Thus in
contradistinction to the prevailing view one reads of Indra himself
that he is _Yamasya net[=a] Namucecca hant[=a]_ 'Yama's leader,
Namuci's slayer' (iii. 25. 10.), _i.e._, those that die in battle go
to Yama.

On the other hand, in the later speculative portions, Yama is not
death. "Yama is not death, as some think; he is one that gives bliss
to the good, and woe to the bad."[76] Death and life are foolishness
and lack of folly, respectively (literally, 'non-folly is
non-mortality'), while folly and mortality are counter opposites. In
pantheistic teaching there is, of course, no real death, only change.
But death is a female power, personified, and sharply distinguished
from Yama. Death as a means of change thus remains, while Yama is
relegated to the guardianship of hell. The difference in regard to the
latter subject, between earlier and later views, has been noted above.
One comparatively early passage attempts to arrange the incongruous
beliefs in regard to _sams[=a]ra_ (re-birth) and hell on a sort of
sliding scale, thus: "One that does good gets in the next life a good
birth; one that does ill gets an ill birth"; more particularly: "By
good acts one attains to the state of gods; by 'mixed' acts, to the
state of man; by acts due to confusion of mind, to the state of
animals and plants (_viyon[=i][s.]u_); by sinful acts one goes to
hell" (_adhog[=a]mi_, iii. 209. 29-32).[77] Virtue must have been, as
the epic often declares it to be, a 'subtile matter,' for often a tale
is told to illustrate the fact that one goes to hell for doing what he
thinks (mistakenly) to be right. Thus K[=a]ucika is sent to hell for
speaking the truth, whereas he ought to have lied to save life (viii.
69. 53), for he was