History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.634
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.634
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We must now turn to the ideas of Heaven and Hell contained in the post-Vedic Literature, sūtras, smṛtis, purāṇas and digests. The Nir. (I 11) quotes³⁸⁷ a quarter of a Vedic verse which means 'for fear that if we (women) acted crookedly (towards our husbands) we might fall into Hell'. The word Naraka is derived by it in two ways (*ni* + *araka*), viz. as meaning 'going below' (the earth) or (*na* + *ra* + *ka*) 'where there is not the slightest place for joy'. In another place, while deriving the word 'putra' (son) the Nir. (II 11) declares that the son is called *putra* because he saves (the father) from the hell called *put*. The same derivation of the word putra is offered by Manu IX 138 (= Ādiparva 229.14 = Viṣṇudharmasūtra 15.44). Gautama (13.7) promises³⁸⁸ heaven to the witnesses in a cause if they speak the truth, but Hell (*naraka*) if they tell the opposite (of truth). After defining *patana* as loss of the capacity to perform the privileged acts of twice-born classes (such as Veda study &c) and stating that by being guilty of sins a man does not in the next world reap the fruits of his good actions, Gautama states the striking view of other sages that *naraka* is nothing more than this loss of capacity and of the fruits of good acts, his own view however being that *naraka* is a particular place where a man has to dwell solely in distress and sorrow.
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It was the emphatic view of Gautama that men of the several varṇas and āśramas that are devoted to the actions prescribed as peculiar to each, enjoy after departing from this body, the fruits of their actions and then owing to some remainder of their total actions are born in bodies in appropriate circumstances as to the country, caste, family, appearance, length of life, learning, conduct, wealth, happiness and intelligence, while those who act contrariwise pass into all sorts of births and are ruined³⁸⁹. Āp. Dh. S. holds that a man becomes fit for Naraka if he follows activities solely dictated by sensual pleasures.³⁹⁰ In another place Ap. Dh S. affirms that *Naraka* is indeed one's lot when one transgresses one's *dharma*. It also states that rewards without end are denominated *svargya*. The Vedāntasūtra III. 1.13 makes it³⁹¹ clear that after enjoying the fruits of one's actions in the abode of Yama (*Samyamana*) evil-doers ascend to this mortal world. In Vedāntasūtra III. 1.15 the *narakas*³⁹² are said to be seven Pāṇini VI. 2 38 teaches the accent of *mahāraurava*. In the Kāśikā com on Pāṇini III. 2.88 a vedic verse is cited according to which one who kills his mother enters the 7th *naraka*. The Viṣṇupurāṇa I. 6.41 names seven hells, Tāmisra, Andhatāmisra, Mahāraurava, Raurava, Asipatravana, Kālasūtra and Avīci and (in II. 6 2-5) names 26 *narakas*.
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Śaṅkha-Likhita as quoted by the Madanapārijāta pp 694-695 mentions in detail the torments that evil-doers undergo in the hells called Kumbhīpāka, Raurava, Mahāraurava &c. Manu IV. 88-90, Yāj. III. 222-224, Viṣṇu Dh. S. 43. 2-22, Agnipuraṇa 371. 20-22, Nārada (*prakīrṇaka* 44) enumerate 21 *narakas*. The names are almost the same in all these works, the variations being due mostly to the scribes having read certain letters differently. The 21 names are generally significant and may be set out from Manu as follows: Tāmisra (darkness), Andhatāmisra (blinding darkness), Mahāraurava, Raurava (abounding in paths with heated surfaces, according to Pr. V. p. 15), Kālasūtra (like the thread on the wheel with which the potter cuts off a raw earthen pot in two), Mahānaraka, Sañjīvana (where one is made to revive and is again killed), Mahāvīci (where one is submerged in surging waves), Tapana (as burning hot as fire), Sampratāpana (same as Kumbhīpāka, according to Pr. V. p. 15), Saṅghāta (making many stay in a small place like the legendary Blackhole of Calcutta), Kākola (where one is preyed on by crows), Kudmala (where one is bound with ropes into a bundle, which looks like a closed bud), Pūtimṛttika (where the clay has a putrid smell), Lohaśaṅku (piercing one with iron nails), Ṛjīṣa (where boiled flour is thrown about), Panthāḥ (where one is made to walk constantly to and fro), Śālmali (where one is struck with thorns like those of the silk-cotton tree), Nadī (i. e.
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where one is carried away by a river such as the Vaitaraṇī), Asipatravana (where one is cut up by a forest of sword blades), Lohadāraka (which cuts up limbs with iron). Manu (XII. 75-76) again mentions the Tāmisra, Asipatravana and Kumbhīpāka narakas and Manu III. 249 Kālasūtra. Kullūka (on Manu. IV. 88-90), Pr. V. (p. 16), the Dīpakalikā (on Yāj. III. 222-224) and other commentaries say that the conditions in the hells may be read in the Mārkaṇḍeya-purāṇa and other works. Vide Agnipurāṇa 203 and 371 (where Hells are said to be 144), Brahmapurāṇa, chap. 22 (which names 25 narakas and states what sinners fall into which of them), chap 214 (verses 14-17 of which speak of 22 narakas and verses 51-103 contain harrowing descriptions of the horrible torments of hell), chap. 215. 83. ff. (for names and descriptions of several narakas).³⁹³