The tenth book of the _Rig-Veda_ contains in hymns 14-18 a collection of
funeral stanzas quite unrivaled for mythological and ethnological
interest in the literature of ancient peoples. In hymn 14 there are
three stanzas (10-12) that deal with the two dogs of Yama. This is the
classical passage, all depends upon its interpretation. They contain
detached statements which take up the idea from different points of
view, that are not easily harmonized as long as the dogs are merely
ordinary canines; they resolve themselves fitly and neatly into a pair
of natural objects, if we follow closely all the ideas which the Hindus
associated with them.
In the first place, it is clear that we are dealing with the conception
of Cerberus. In stanza 10 the two dogs are conceived as ill-disposed
creatures, standing guard to keep the departed souls out of bliss. The
soul on its way to heaven is addressed as follows:
"Run past straightway the two four-eyed dogs, the spotted and (the
dark), the brood of Saram[=a]; enter in among the propitious fathers who
hold high feast with Yama."
A somewhat later text, the book of house-rite of [=A]çval[=a]yana, has
the notion of the sop to Cerberus: "To the two dogs born in the house
of (Yama) Vivasvant's son, to the dark and the spotted, I have given a
cake; do ye guard me ever on my road!"
The twelfth stanza of the _Rig-Veda_ hymn strikes a somewhat different
note which suggests both good and evil in the character of the two dogs:
"The two brown, broad-nosed messengers of Yama, life-robbing, wander
among men. May they restore to us to-day the auspicious breath of life,
that we may behold the sun." Evidently the part of the Cerberi here is
not in harmony with their function in stanza 10: instead of debarring
men from the abodes of bliss they pick out the dead that are ultimately
destined to boon companionship with Yama. The same idea is expressed
simply and clearly in prayers for long life in the _Atharva-Veda_: "The
two dogs of Yama, the dark and the spotted, that guard the road (to
heaven), that have been dispatched, shall not (go after) thee! Come
hither, do not long to be away! Do not tarry here with thy mind turned
to a distance." (viii. 1. 9.) And again: "Remain here, O man, with thy
soul entire! Do not follow the two messengers of Yama; come to the
abodes of the living." (v. 30. 6.)
These prayers contain the natural, yet under the circumstances rather
paradoxical, desire to live yet a little longer upon the earth in the
light of the sun. Fitfully the mortal Hindu regales himself with
saccharine promises of paradise; in his every-day mood he clings to life
and shrinks with the uneasy sense that his paradise may not materialize,
even if the hope is expressed glibly and fluently. The real craving is
expressed in numberless passages: "May we live a hundred autumns,
surrounded by lusty sons." Homer's Hades has wiped out this
inconsistency, only to substitute another. Odysseus, on returning from
his visit to Hades, exclaims baldly: "Better a swineherd on the surface
of the earth in the light of the sun than king of the shades in Hades."
It is almost adding insult to injury to have the road to such a Hades
barred by Cerberus. This latter paradox must be removed in order that
the myth shall become intelligible.
The eleventh of the _Rig-Veda_ stanzas presents the two dogs as guides
of the soul [Greek: psychopompoi] to heaven: "To thy two four-eyed,
road-guarding, man-beholding watch-dogs entrust him, O King Yama, and
bestow on him prosperity and health."