ཚའ་མཐའ་མད notes.105

notes.105

105. Here starts an explanation of the so-called cold hells. According to Vasubandhu, the Skt. names of the cold hells indicate either the shape of the beings reborn in a particular hell or the noise that the denizens of a particular hell make (e.g., Skt. Hell of Chattering Teeth; see Pruden 1988–90, vol. 2, 459 and 473 on the lifespan in arbuda). According to Gampopa’s dwags po thar rgyan, the names indicate the kind of physical torment one experiences in them, e.g., in Blistering Hell (Skt. arbuda, Tib. chu bur can), blisters are said to appear on the skin and burst open due to the intense cold in this hell. Other names, like in Vasubandhu’s explanation, are clearly onomatopoeic (e.g., the Hell of Lamentation, Skt. hahava, Tib. kyi hud zer ba or Skt. huhuva, Tib. a chu zer ba). See Guenther 1986, 60–62; Konchog Gyaltsen 1998, 101–3. For another version of this story including the concluding verses, see The Hundred Deeds, Toh 340, 3.366–3.374.