Skandapurana 5.225

Bhartṛyajña said: / Since sapiṇḍa status is declared all around by means of the ancestors' piṇḍas, / as long as there is no sapiṇḍa status, he remains a preta, / 1

even if endowed with righteousness, even if endowed with austerity. / For this reason, the sapiṇḍa status has been spoken of by the sages. / 2

Whatever womb a human being reaches elsewhere, / abiding there he attains satisfaction from whatever is given by those born of his lineage. / 3

Ānarta said: / When one's own fathers and grandfathers appear in a dream after a long time / and request their desires, what then follows, O great sage? / 4

Bhartṛyajña said: / Those who have not obtained a [good] destiny and abide in the state of a preta, / they all indeed show their own selves / 5

to those of their own lineage, and not to others; this is the truth spoken by me, / just as those born here in this world [reap results] through auspicious and inauspicious deeds. / 6

Ānarta said: / For him who has no son, how should sapiṇḍīkaraṇa / be performed here for him? You ought to tell me that. / 7

Bhartṛyajña said: / For him who has no bodily son, O king, / how could he become the fourth among the four ancestors? / 8

Because he departs violently (prakarṣeṇa vrajet), therefore he is declared a preta. / His sapiṇḍa status must be performed by a son, a brother, or a wife. / 9

If, O best of kings, a fourth is not born in any way, / these eleven sons, beginning with the child born of the wife (kṣetraja) as stated, / 6.226.10

the wise call substitutes for a son, lest the rites fail. / If at that time his subsequent rite (uttarakriyā) does not take place, O best of kings, / 11

the Nārāyaṇabali must be performed, which destroys the state of being a preta; / just as for other men who have met with an untimely death, / and it should also be performed for those who commit suicide, [or] who die at the hands of a brahmin. / 12

Ānarta said: / How does a man meet with death here, O highly intelligent one? / 13

And by what action does he go to heaven or to hell, / or to liberation, O fortunate one? Tell me all in detail. / 14

Bhartṛyajña said: / The righteous, the sinful, and the possessor of knowledge—three destinations are taught here: / from righteousness heaven is attained, and from sin, hell alone; / 15

from knowledge, liberation is attained; this is the truth spoken by me. / Concerning this matter, O king, Yudhiṣṭhira, the great king, / 16

the son of Dharma and best of kings, together with Kṛṣṇa, / questioned the grandfather Bhīṣma, the son of Śaṃtanu, O best of kings. / 17

Yudhiṣṭhira said: / How many hells are proclaimed in the realm of Yama, O grandfather? / By what sin do all creatures go into them? / 18

Glorious Bhīṣma said: / There are twenty-one hells in the abode of Yama. / Living beings go to them according to their own actions.

The two scribes, Citra and Vicitra, are renowned in the abode of Yama.

Citra then writes down all the dharma originating from living beings, / [while] Vicitra, exerting the greatest effort, [writes down] every sin.

There are always eight messengers of Yama born from the King of Dharma, / who continually lead men from the world of mortals into their own power:

Karāla, Vikarāla, Vakranāsa, Mahodara, / Saumya, Śānta, Nanda, and Suvākya is recorded as the eighth.

Of these, the four mentioned first are of terrifying form; / they lead all sinful people to the abode of Yama.

The other four mentioned possess gentle forms and bodies; / they lead all righteous people to the abode of Yama,

mounted upon a vimāna, served by hosts of apsarases.

In accordance with what is written regarding the production of sin and dharma, / there are servants of these [messengers], and of them no count is known.

One hundred and eight diseases have been appointed by Yama / to assist them here, with fever and consumption at their head.

Those diseases go forth first and bring the mortal under control.

Then, having gone there, Yama's messengers take hold of the [soul in the] form of wind / situated at the root of the navel, unseen by any people.

Leaving the body behind on the earth, they proceed along the path of Yama; / the path of Yama is proclaimed to be eighty-six thousand [yojanas].

There is a river formerly renowned by the name Vaitaraṇī; / with two streams, O fortunate one, she is ever stationed there.

In one of her streams, blood flows profusely, / and within it are very sharp weapons, O bull of the Bharatas.

Those who give a cow to a brahmin at the time of death, / clinging to her tail, they cross over it, O king.

Others [must cross] by their own arms over a breadth of a hundred yojanas. / And the second stream of Vaitaraṇī is situated there: / flowing with pure water, it is ever passable for the righteous.

Those men who are givers of cows when the time of death arrives, / clinging to the tail of the cow, cross that broad-watered [river]; / others, devoid of the gift of a cow, [must do so] by their own arms.

Therefore, the gift of a cow should be made especially / when the time of death has arrived here, by one who desires his own good course.

After that [river], sinners go along the path of sin, / while the most righteous go along the path of dharma, seated on an excellent vimāna.

On the farther shore of the Vaitaraṇī, five yojanas in length, / is the forest named Asipatravana, bringing misery to sinful people.

There are hundreds of sword-blades made of iron, / which slice the bodies of mortals on all sides.

For those evil-souled ones by whom another’s wealth and wife were stolen, / if nine śrāddhas are performed, liberation from that arises.

Beyond that, the renowned Kūṭaśālmali is known; / [sinners] hang face downward on it, thick with thorns,

and burned from below by fire day and night. / Those who are betrayers of trust and always utterly merciless / attain liberation from it when the eleventh-day śrāddha has been performed.

After that is proclaimed the dread-formed hell named Yantra; / there the slayers of brahmins are tortured, as are other evildoers.

By the śrāddha on the twelfth day offered for them, O ruler of the earth, / they clearly attain liberation from the hell named Yantra.

Next stand blazing pillars made of iron, / and those who delight in other men's wives are made to embrace them all.

When the monthly śrāddha is performed, they obtain liberation from them.

Next are stationed fierce hounds with iron fangs; / they devour the sinners who ate the flesh of [another's] back (slanderers). / When the forty-fifth-day śrāddha is performed, they obtain liberation from them.

Immediately after that stand crows with beaks of iron. / Those by whom other men's wives were looked upon with lustful eyes—

they strike at their eyes, which are repeatedly regenerated in abundance. / And by the two-month śrāddha, liberation from that arises.

Then there is the peak of the silk-cotton tree and other iron thorns; / through the midst of them men devoted to slander are led. / But by the three-month śrāddha, liberation from that arises.

Next is the well-known Raurava, a great and dreadful hell; / it is prescribed for the slayers of brahmins, causing great torment.

Those situated there are repeatedly hacked by various weapons; / through the four-month śrāddha, their liberation arises.

Another is proclaimed, Kṣāroda, extremely dreadful; / it is prescribed for the ungrateful, ever bringing great suffering,

where they are tortured hanging upside down with feet raised aloft; / through the five-month offering, their liberation arises.

Then Kumbhīpāka is known, a hell of dreadful form, / where, thrown into oil and struck with clubs, / killers of people and killers of children are seen.

Men who betray trust fall into that terrible hell; / through the six-month offering they are released from that plight.

Another hell filled with serpents and scorpions is known; / there the hypocrites in the world go, the lowest of men. / Through the seven-month offering, their liberation arises.

Likewise another hell is proclaimed by the name Saṃvartaka; / perverters of the Vedas and evil-minded revilers of the virtuous [go there].

Then the tongue is torn out with tongs born of fire. / For those who speak untruth in their own interest, their limbs are eaten by dogs;

and for those who speak [untruth] for the sake of another, their limbs [are devoured] entirely. / Through the eight-month offering, their liberation arises.

The fire-summit hell is a vast inundation, terrible and great; / there those fools go who bear false witness.

Standing there, they endure fierce torment, intensely miserable; / and a gift made in the ninth month brings them supreme joy.

Then there is another [hell] filled all around with iron stakes; / and there go incendiaries and the murderers of women.

There they run, stricken with misery and beaten by the attendants; / a gift born of the tenth month is for their deliverance there.

Then the ground is covered all around with heaps of burning coals; / there those who delight in treason against their master wander in every direction.

A gift arising from the eleventh [month] brings about liberation there. / Hell full of scorching sand is dreadful in appearance.

And those men who, seeing their master arrive, take to flight, / are cooked there, miserable; / and the śrāddha of the twelfth month assists them.

Whatever water or food is given in the course of that year, / offered by their own relatives, they enjoy upon that path.

Then, beyond the year, having approached the King of Dharma, / they experience the good and the bad arising from their own deeds.

Having thus experienced these fifteen hells, / those men then obtain birth once again in the mortal world.

And those sophists obtain birth in a foreign land; / by the daily offering of tarpaṇa, their satisfaction is produced.

And those intent on treason against their master obtain birth in a wicked realm; / by the offering of an alms-portion, their satisfaction is produced.

Those men who eat without giving to the ancestors, gods, and twice-born / are born in famine through that sin.

When a śrāddha is received on the anniversary of death, satisfaction is produced thereby.

Those who cause division between an affectionate couple [by telling] / mutual untruths—their wife becomes unfaithful.

When one word is spoken, she speaks ten in anger, / misshapen, wandering about, and reviled by all people; / by the fruits of giving a maiden, happiness may arise for them there and for these [women].

He who obstructs the giving of a maiden, or sells her, / begets only daughters, never a son at all.

And they are born unchaste, widowed, and unfortunate; / through the attainment of the fruit of giving a maiden, happiness arises for them.

And those by whom jewels and sacred scriptures have been stolen / are born poor, mute, lame, and blind; / by the gift of scriptures, happiness is produced for them here.

These hells arising in the mortal world have been declared; / by these, all actions done, good and evil, are recognized.

Through the fruits of pilgrimage to sacred fords, purification is then produced for him.

Bhīṣma said: / All this has been declared to you, what I was asked, O ruler of men, / and the extent of the twenty-one hells as it stands.

Ask again, O best of kings, whatever doubt remains in your heart.

Thus ends the two hundred twenty-sixth chapter, named 'Description of the torments of the twenty-one hells reached through respective sins and the means of averting them', in the Śrāddhakalpa within the dialogue between Bhīṣma and Yudhiṣṭhira, in the Māhātmya of Hāṭakeśvarakṣetra, in the sixth Nāgarakhaṇḍa of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.