Syam and Sabal

Syam and Sabal are pishacha dogs that guard Yamalya, the secret jail of Yama used to captivate the pishachas. They were once brothers, born to sarama.

They were born in Amrawati and their mother Sarama served Indra. Due to their abilities, Sakra had used them in somyagya and since then they had been roaming as pishachas.

Over a long period of time, their rurus acquire enough intelligence to take over the body of two dogs.

Relationship with the residents of Yamanagri
Both Syam and Sabal have great respect for yama, because he befriended them and did not try to hurt or capture. Yama in turn, made them the guards of his Yamalya to make sure that nobody entered it without his permission, barring vichitra.

They did not share the same camaraderie with Shani, in fact, there was a hint of jealousy. Only Yama, shani and Nandi could call them by their real names. Others called them "The great Twins" to acknowledge their importance.

Even though they were pishachas, but in Yamanagri they had same importance as Shani and Nandi.

Personality and Appearance
Syam and Sabal, though twins were very dissimilar in their appearance and abilities.

Syamis the taller of the two with fine features, slender body and white fur. He is a thinker, but when Yama is in danger he is also the most ferocious. He always looks serious but can crack deadpan jokes at the most inopportune of times. He does not like lose talk and walks away when he gets bored.

He is the smaller one, but built broader and stronger and is dotted all over his body. Sabal is the more aggressive of the two. He swears a lot and gets irritated easily. He dreams of hurting Nandi one day, as he was the one to control him when they encountered the first time. He also respects Yama, but unlike Syam, his devotion is not absolute, and likes vichitra a lot. In fact, that is the only thing that keeps him from challenging Nandi, as he is his foster father.

Their pishacha forms are much bigger and demonic in the appearance then the normal body.

Powers and Abilities
Syam was a psychic, had super heightened senses that could match Yama's. He is the only one barring Yama who could sense the accurate location of dead bodies from about 100 miles, when they discovered vichitra.

Sabal's strength is comparable to Nandi's. He can jump long distances and achieve great speed while running. He can run for a long distance and one of the testament to this is that they cover the distance from Yamanagri to Alkapuri in 8 days including the trek to the mountains.