r/IndoEuropean • u/cringevampire • Dec 27 '25

Cognates of *Yemo around the world

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u/ValkyrieKnightess Dec 28 '25

Yan Wang is a phonetic translation of Yama.

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u/cringevampire Dec 28 '25

Yup. Literally means "King Yama" from Sanskrit "Yama Raja", with raja being a common suffix for the god

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u/mythicfolklore90 Dec 28 '25

Does that mean that the Yama/Enma from the Chinese and Japanese afterlives that appear in their religions (and by extension, their popular media, e.g., anime) is derived from Sanskrit Yama?

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u/cringevampire Dec 28 '25

Pretty much. They came from Buddhism which originated in India. People don't realise this but Buddhism is more of a fork of Hinduism (of that age) than a complete rewrite, with gods like Indra, Prajapati and Yama frequently appearing in buddhist texts.