Markandeyapurana 12.24

12.24

duḥ khāni te prāpnuvanti yānyasahyāni jantubhiḥ /
asipatravanaṃ nāma narakaṃ śṛṇu cāparam //

“Listen also while I speak of the hell Apratiṣṭha, the occupants of which hell undergo intolerable pain. Those wheels are there indeed, and jar and well-ropes on the other side, which have been constituted causes of pain to men who engage in sin. Some human beings mounted on the wheels whirl around there; for thousands of years no other condition is theirs; and then another man is bound to the jar and well-rope, as the jar in the water. Human beings whirl around, continually spitting out blood, with blood pouring from their faces, and with eyes streaming with tears. They are visited with pains that are beyond endurance by living creatures.

“Hear also of another hell called Asipatravana;[5] which has the ground covered with blazing fire for a thousand yojanas, where they are grievously scorched by the very fierce vehement beams of the sun. The living beings that inhabit the hell are ever falling down there. In the midst thereof appears a charming forest with moist leaves. The leaves there are sword-blades, O most virtuous brāhman! Myriads[6] of powerful black dogs also bark there, with long muzzles, with large teeth, formidable as tigers. Then gazing at that forest before them, with its cool shades, the living beings hasten thither, oppressed with raging thirst, crying ‘Ah mother! ah dear one!’ in deepest woe; their feet burnt by the fire lambent on the ground. When they wend there, a wind blows, that hurls down the sword-leaves, and so casts the swords down upon them. Thereat they fall to the earth into a mass of blazing fire, which has pervaded the entire surface of the ground, and is constantly licking in other directions. Thereupon the terrific dogs quickly rend many limbs from the bodies of those wailing ones. I have described this Asipatravana to thee, dear father!