[9][10] A parallel imagery is found in Historical Vedic religion: Yama, ruler of the underworld realm, is said to own two four-eyed dogs who also act as his messengers[11] and fulfill the role of protectors of the soul in the path to heaven.
These hounds, named Shyama (Śyāma) and Sabala, are described as the brood of Sarama, a divine female dog: one is black[note 2] and the other spotted.
[21] In a legend from Lokev, a male creature named Vilež ("fairy man"), who dwells in Vilenica Cave, is guarded by two wolves and is said to take men into the underworld.
[24] An archeological find by Russian archeologist Alexei Rezepkin at Tsarskaya showed two dogs of different colors (one of bronze, the other of silver), each siding the porthole of a tomb.
[27][28] The King of the Otherworld may have been Yemo, the sacrificed twin of the creation myth, as suggested by the Indo-Iranian and, to a lesser extent, by the Germanic, Greek and Celtic traditions.