there were fresh invasions into middle
India, and the "late comers" introduced new beliefs, including the
doctrines of the Transmigration of Souls and of the Ages of the
Universe. Goddesses also rose into prominence, and the Vedic gods
became minor deities, and subject to Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. These
"late comers" had undoubtedly been influenced by Babylonian ideas
before they entered India. In their Doctrine of the World's Ages or
Yugas, for instance, we are forcibly reminded of the Euphratean ideas
regarding space and time. Mr. Robert Brown, junr., who is an authority
in this connection, shows that the system by which the "Day of Brahma"
was calculated in India resembles closely an astronomical system which
obtained in Babylonia, where apparently the theory of cosmic periods
had origin.[234]

The various alien peoples, however, who came under the spell of
Babylonian modes of thought did not remain in a state of intellectual
bondage. Thought was stimulated rather than arrested by religious
borrowing, and the development of ideas regarding the mysteries of
life and death proceeded apace in areas over which the ritualistic and
restraining priesthood of Babylonia exercised no sway. As much may be
inferred from the contrasting conceptions of the Patriarchs of Vedic
and Sumerian mythologies. Pir-napishtim, the Babylonian Noah, and the
semi-divine Gilgamesh appear to be represented in Vedic mythology by
Yama, god of the dead. Yama was "the first man", and, like Gilgamesh,
he set out on a journey over mountains and across water to discover
Paradise. He is lauded in the Vedic hymns as the explorer of "the
path" or "way" to the "Land of the Pitris" (Fathers), the Paradise to
which the Indian uncremated dead walked on foot. Yama never lost his
original character. He is a traveller in the Epics as in the
Vedas.[235]

Him who along the mighty heights departed, Him who searched and
spied the path for many, Son of Vivasvat, gatherer of the people,
Yama, the King, with sacrifices worship. _Rigveda_, x, 14, 1.[236]
To Yama, mighty King, be gifts and homage paid, He was the first
of men that died, the first to brave Death's rapid rushing stream,
the first to point the road To heaven, and welcome others to that
bright abode. _Sir M. Monier Williams' Translation_.[237]

Yama and his sister Yami were the first human pair. They are identical
with the Persian Celestial twins, Yima and Yimeh. Yima resembles