A princess named Savitri loved Satyavan, the son of an old hermit, but was warned by a seer to overcome her attachment, as Satyavan was a doomed man, having only one year to live. Savitri replies:

"Whether his years be few or many, be he gifted with all grace
Or graceless, him my heart hath chosen, and it chooseth not again."

They were married, and the bride strove to forget the prophecy; but, as the last day of the year approached, her anxiety became irrepressible. She exhausted herself in prayers and penances, hoping to stay the hand of the destroyer, yet all the while dared not reveal the fatal secret to her husband. At last the dreaded day arrived, and Satyavan set out to cut wood in the forest. His wife asked leave to accompany him, and walked behind him, smiling, but with a heavy heart. Satyavan soon made the wood resound with his hatchet, when suddenly a thrill of agony shot through his temples, and, feeling himself falling, called his wife to support him.

"Then she received her fainting husband in her arms, and sat herself
On the cold ground, and gently laid his drooping head upon her lap:
Sorrowing, she called to mind the sage's prophecy, and reckoned up
The days and hours. All in an instant she beheld an awful shape
Standing before her, dressed in blood-red garments, with a glittering crown
Upon his head; his form, though. glowing like the Sun, was yet obscure,
And eyes lie had like flames, a noose depended from his hand; and he
Was terrible to look upon, as by her husband's side he stood
And gazed upon him with a fiery glance. Shuddering she started up,
And laid her dying Satyavan upon the ground, and, with her hands
Joined reverently, she thus with beating heart addressed the shape:
Surely thou art a god; such form as thine must more than mortal be!
Tell me, thou god-like being, who thou art, and wherefore art thou here?'"

The figure replied that he was Yama, king of the dead; that her husband's time was come, and that he must bind and take his spirit.

"Then from her husband's body forced he out, and firmly with his cord
Bound and detained the spirit, clothed in form no larger than a thumb.
Forthwith the body, reft of vital being and deprived of breath,
Lost all its grace and beauty, and became ghastly and motionless."

After binding the spirit, Yama proceeds with it towards the quarter of which he is guardian--the south.