Also known as: Yamini; Yamuna

Yami, Yama’s twin sister, approached her brother with love, seeking marriage and children. He rejectedher, preferring to die childless, rather than commit incest. (Yami and Yama may derive from an earlier pantheon in which—like Hera and Zeus or Isis and Osiris—sister-brother marriage was the norm.) Without her brother, Yami transformed into Yamini, Mournful Lady of Night. She did not travel to the realm of death with Yama but remains an Earth-bound spirit, the spirit of the Yamuna River.


* In some Tibetan legends, Yami is a goddess of death and Yama’s consort. She rules the female spirits of the Hell zones. She may or may not be Yama’s sister.

Color: Black

Creature: Tortoise


Time: Night

See also: Yama