Mṛtyu (Sanskrit:मृत्यु,romanized: Mṛtyu,lit. 'Death'), is aSanskrit word meaningdeath. Mṛtyu, or Death, is oftenpersonified as the deitiesMara (मर) andYama (यम) inDharmic religions such asHinduism andBuddhism.
The Vedicmṛtyú, along withAvestanmərəθiiu andOld Persianməršiyu comes from the Proto-Indo-Iranian word for death,*mr̥tyú-, which is ultimately derived from the Indo-European root*mer- ("to die") and thus is further related to Ancient Greekμόρος andLatinmors.
Mrtyu is invoked in the hymns of theRigveda:[1]
Depart, Mṛtyu, by a different path; by that which is your own, and distinct from the path of the gods; I speak to you who have eyes, who have ears; do no harm to our offspring, nor to our male progeny.
— Rigveda, Hymn 10.18.1
TheBrhadaranyaka Upanishad (a mystical appendix to theShatapatha Brahmana and likely the oldest of the Upanishads) has acreation myth whereMṛtyu "Death" takes the shape of a horse, and includes an identification of theAshvamedha horse sacrifice with the Sun:[2]
Then he became a horse (ashva), because it swelled (ashvat), and was fit for sacrifice (medhya); and this is why the horse-sacrifice is called Ashva-medha [...] Therefore the sacrificers offered up the purified horse belonging to Prajapati, (as dedicated) to all the deities. Verily the shining sun [ye tapati] is the Asvamedha, and his body is the year; Agni is the sacrificial fire (arka), and these worlds are his bodies. These two are the sacrificial fire and the Asvamedha-sacrifice, and they are again one deity, viz. Death.
— Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, Hymn 1.2.7
Mrtyu fights in the war between thedevas and theasuras in the legend ofJalandhara.[3]
TheMahabharata references a legend regarding a dispute betweenTime, Mrityu, Yama,Ikshvaku, and aBrahmana. Mrityu is female in this legend.[4]
