Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.1278

c7.1278

And then Kāla arrived to determine suitable punishments to the various kinds of sinners, and seeing Janaka there, asked why he, the most virtuous and the purest of souls, waited there, Janaka explained his reason for standing there and added that he would quit the place only if Kāla released all those people from hell. On hearing Janaka’s answer Kāla pointed out to him one by one the sinners who were being tortured in hell and explained things as follows:— “Look here, that fellow there had seduced the wife of his most intimate friend, and that is why he is tied to a red hot iron bar for 10,000 years. After those 10,000 years he would be born in a pig’s womb, and when he is born among human beings it would be as a eunuch. The other fellow there forcibly kissed another man’s wife, and so he has to be roasted in Raurava hell for hundred years. That other fellow is put into this vessel filled with blood and pus with both his hands cut off as he had stolen other people’s property. This fellow did not speak even a word of welcome to a tired and hungry man who sought his hospitality at night. That is why he has been thrown into thick darkness, and there, for a hundred years, he must undergo the additional suffering of wasp-bite. As for this man he had in a loud voice found fault with another man, and this other fellow is his friend who listened to those vilifications attentively. And, that is the reason why both of them have been pushed into this unused well. So, all these people have to suffer for their sins, You, King Janaka, who did only righteous acts will please go away from this accursed place.” Janaka asked Kāla how those sinners could be released from hell, and Kāla answered that if any good act of the King was transferred to them they could be set free. One early morning Janaka had, with a pure heart, chanted "Rāma, Rāma" and that good act was exchanged for the freedom of the sinners.