Karva's husband is seized by a crocodile while bathing. She binds the animal with raw cotton thread so it cannot move and goes to Yama. Yama and Chitragupta find the crocodile still has years to live, so Yama refuses; Karva threatens to curse him. Fearing a true wife's curse, Yama sends the crocodile to his hell and grants her husband long life. Women ask the goddess to guard their husbands as Karva guarded hers.
Karva Chauth vrat katha (Drik Panchang; Webdunia Hindi; vow-book retellings)
Sources: Karva Chauth vrat katha (Drik Panchang; Webdunia Hindi; vow-book retellings)
In the Garuda Purana the bird asks Vishnu what happens to a person after death, and Vishnu describes the road of Yama, the thirteen days of rites, the sixteen cities and the river Vaitarani; that dialogue is what families in north India have read aloud in the days after a death.
When the skull of Brahma falls from Bhairava's hand at Kashi, Shiva makes him the city's lord and keeper; he alone punishes those who sin in Kashi, so even Yama's messengers keep away, and pilgrims still go to ask his leave.
The childless sage Mrikandu is offered by Shiva a choice: a good son who dies at sixteen or a fool who lives long.
Singers steady themselves and call a man's spirit back for sense, strength and life.
A dove, envoy of Destruction, has come into the house and settled by the fire.
The funeral hymn gives the dead to Pushan, who knows the far road; the Isha Upanishad asks him to uncover the face of the True.
King Prithu, son of Vena, makes the Earth yield grain by milking her as a cow; told as a cosmic milking in the Atharvaveda, a friendly one in the Mahabharata and a chase in the Puranas.
The Sun's wife cannot bear his splendour.