Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.915

c4.915

ASIPATRAVANA. One of the notorious twentyeight hells. If you destroy forests without purpose you will go to this hell. (Chapter 6, Anuśāsana Parva 2, Viṣṇu Purāṇa). The Devī Bhāgavata describes Asipatravana like this : “Those who forsake their own natural duty and go in for that of others are thrown into this hell; they die by the orderlies of Yama, the King of Death. There they will be whipped by a whip made of thorny herbs and as they run about with pain they will be followed and whipped. Crashing against the big stones there they will fall fainting and the moment they wake up from the faint they will be stabbed again. This will be repeated. (Aṣṭama Skandha, Devī Bhāgavata).