The Lamp for Yama: King Hima's Son

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Dharma Katha · Season 4: The Road to Diwali · Episode 148 Tonight, after the shopping is done and the new vessels are washed and put away, in many houses someone will do something a little strange. They will take a small clay lamp, sometimes one with four wicks, fill it with mustard oil, light it, and set it outside the front door. Not facing the house. Facing away from it. Facing south. South is the direction of Yama, the lord of death. On the first night of the festival of lights, we light a lamp for death. Why? Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 147 first. Source note. Label: tradition. The story of King Hima's son and his wife, the heap of ornaments and lamps, and Yama as a serpent who listens until dawn is a Dhanteras vrat katha told in many households; details differ between tellings, and I have not found it in a Purana in this form. Yama deepdaan, the lamp set facing south on the evening of Dhanteras, is living practice, and the verse recited with it is attributed in ritual manuals to the Skanda Purana. Savitri's story is in the Mahabharata, Vana Parva, told in Season One, episode twenty-seven. The reflections are my own. Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.