Yama is the much-feared Hindu god of death who lives in his gloomy palace Kalichi situated somewhere in the nether regions or the Hindu Patala. He is the regent of the Southern quarter of the compass. Yama has a number of attendants to assist him in his many tasks. In his palace he keeps a register called the “Book of Destiny” in which each person’s span of life is recorded. This is maintained by one of the god’s attendants and the servant is predictably as gloomy of countenance as his master. When a person’s span of life is over Yama sends some of his more robust attendants up to earth to haul the person down to his palace. Yama is depicted as a man with dark green skin, wearing blood-red robes and with coppery eyes staring out of his grisly face. He rides his buffalo when he is traveling and he takes his mace and noose everywhere just in case there is an emergency and someone has to be cut off in the midst of his or her life.
