Mṛtyu

views updated

Mṛtyu. Death, the Hindu personification of death. In the Vedic period, there was no belief in an immortal life beyond death. Prajāpati made his body ‘undecaying’ through sacrifice and by practising tapas (austerities), and he then taught the remaining gods how to do the same (Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 10. 4). Mṛtyu complained that he would have no food if this skill was passed on to humans, and he pointed out that heaven would become overcrowded. The gods decreed that only those humans who surrender to Mṛtyu voluntarily will attain immortality; the rest will remain ‘the food of death’.

More From encyclopedia.com