Bhagavad Gita · Mahabharata Codex

Aryaman

अर्यमा · aryamā

Chief of the ancestors; one of the Adityas

He presides over those who have gone before.

Aryaman is one of the twelve Adityas. In the Veda he is the god of hospitality and of the bonds that hold a community together, such as marriage. Later he is regarded as the head of the pitris, the departed ancestors who receive the offerings of rice and water. Arjuna feared in chapter 1 that those offerings would cease if the family were destroyed.