History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.634.1

v5.c71.s1.634.1

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.