| Philosophy and Religion / Vishnu-smriti (Vishnu sutra) |
Vishnu-smriti (Vishnu sutra / Vaishnava Dharmasâstra)
Hells
XLIII.1
1. Now follow the hells. (They are called:)
2. Tâmisra (darkness);
3. Andhatâmisra (complete darkness);
4. Raurava (place of howling);2
5. Mahâraurava (place of much howling);
6. Kâlasûtra (thread of time or death);3
7. Mahânaraka (great hell);
8. Sañgîvana (restoring to life);4
9. Avîki (waveless);
10. Tâpana (burning);
11. Sampratâpana (parching);
12. Samghâtaka, (pressing together)5
13. Kâkola (ravens);6
14, Kudmala (bud);7
15. Pûtimrittika (stinking clay);
16. Lohasankti (iron-spiked);
17. Rikîsha (frying-pan);8
18. Vishamapanthâna (rough or uneven roads);
19. Kantakasâlmali (thorny Sâlmali trees);
20. Dîpanadî (flame river);9
21. Asipattravana (sword-leaved forest);
22. Lohakâraka (iron fetters);10
23. In each of those (hells) successively criminals in the highest degree, who have not performed the penance (prescribed for their crime), are tormented for the time of a Kalpa.
24. Mortal sinners (who have not done penance) for a Manvantara;
25. Minor offenders, for the same period;
26. Criminals in the fourth degree, for the period of a Katuryuga;
27. Those who have committed a crime effecting loss of caste, for a thousand years;
28. Those who have committed a crime degrading to a mixed caste, for the same period;
29. Those likewise who have committed a crime rendering unworthy to receive alms and the like.
30. And those who have committed a crime causing defilement;
31. Those who have committed one of the miscellaneous crimes, for a great number of years;11
32. All sinners who have committed (one of those nine kinds of) crimes have to suffer terrible pangs, when they have departed life and entered upon the path of Yama.
33. Being dragged hither and thither (upon even and uneven roads), by the dire ministers of Yama, they are conducted (to hell by them), with menacing
34. (There) they are devoured by dogs and jackals, by hawks, crows, herons, cranes, and other (carnivorous animals), by (bears and other) animals having fire in their mouth, and by serpents and scorpions.
35. They are scorched by blazing fire, pierced by thorns, divided into parts by saws, and tormented by thirst.
36. They are agitated by hunger and by fearful troops of tigers, and faint away. at every step on account of the foul stenches proceeding from pus and from blood.
37. Casting wistful glances upon the food and drink of others, they receive blows from ministers (of Yama), whose faces are similar to those of crows, herons, cranes, and other horrid animals.
38. Here they are boiled in oil, and there pounded with pestles, or ground in iron or stone vessels.
39. In one place they (are made to) eat what has been vomited, or pus, or blood, or excrements, and in another place, meat of a hideous kind, smelling like pus.
40. Here, enveloped in terrible darkness, they are devoured by worms and (jackals and other) horrible animals having flames in their mouth.
41. There again they are tormented by frost, or have to step through unclean things (such as excrements), or the departed spirits eat one another, driven to distraction (by hunger).
42. In one place they are beaten with their deeds in a former existence, in another they are suspended (by trees and the like, with a rope), or shot with heaps of arrows, or cut in pieces.
43. In another place again, walking upon thorns, and their bodies being encircled by snakes, they are tormented with (grinding) machines, and dragged on by their knees.12
44. Their backs, heads, and shoulders are fractured, the necks of these poor beings are not stouter than a needle, and their bodies, of a size fit for a hut only, are unable to bear torments.
45. Having thus been tormented (in the hells) and suffered most acute pain, the sinners have to endure further pangs in their migration through animal bodies.
Footnotes
1. M. IV, 88-90; Y. III, 222-224.--34. M. XII, 76.
2. Nand. derives the term Raurava from 'ruru, a kind of serpent.' But it seems preferable to connect it with the root ru, 'to howl.'
3. This hell is defined by Nand. as a kind of threshing-place, made of copper, burning hot, and measuring ten thousand Yoganas.
4. In this hell those who have perished in consequence of the tortures which they had to undergo are restored to life and tortured anew. (Nand.)
5. In this hell a large number of individuals is packed up closely in a very narrow space. (Nand.)
6. In this hell the sinners are devoured by ravens. (Nand.)
7. In this hell the sinners are put in sacks, which are tied up at the end. (Nand.)
8. In this hell the sinners are roasted. (Nand.)
9. This river, which contains hot water, is called Vaitaranî, as it is said, The river called Vaitaranî has a stinking odour, is full of blood, and is moving on swiftly a torrent of hot water, carrying bones and hair in its course.' (Nand.) A detailed description of the river Vaitaranî may be found in the Gâruda-purâna, p. 8 (Bombay ed., 1863).
10. 'The particle iti is added here, in order to include in the above enumeration the hells called Savisha, Mahâpatha, Kumbhîpâka, Taptabâluka, and the rest.' (Nand.) See Y. III, 223, 224; M. XII, 76.
11. 'A great number of years' means three hundred years. (Nand.)
12. The Gâruda-purâna, (p. 17) also mentions that in one hell the sinners are thrown into machines like the sugar-cane.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
