Vedic Mythology c9.s3.17

c9.s3.17

§ 75. Hell. — If in the opinion of the composers of the RV. the virtuous received their reward in the future life, it is natural that they should have believed at least in some kind of abode, if not in future punishment,¹ for the wicked, as is the case in the Avesta². As far as the AV. and the Kaṭha Upaniṣad are concerned, the belief in hell is beyond doubt. The AV. (2, 14^3; 5, 19^3) speaks of the house below, the abode of female goblins and sorceresses, called *nāraka loka*³, in contrast with *svarga loka*, the heavenly world, the realm of Yama (12, 4^). To this hell the murderer is consigned (VS. 30, 5). It is in the AV. several times described as 'lowest darkness' (8, 2^ &c.), as well as 'black darkness' (5, 30^) and 'blind darkness' (18, 3^3). The torments of hell are also once described in the AV. (5, 19) and with greater detail in the ŚB. (11, 6, 1)⁴; for it is not till the period of the Brāhmaṇas that the notion of future punishment appears plainly developed⁵. The same Brāhmaṇa further states that every one is born again after death and is weighed in a balance⁶,, receiving reward or punishment according as his works are good or bad (ŚB 11, 2, 7^; cp. 12, 9, 1^1). This idea is also Iranian.⁷ ROTH⁸ favours the view that the religion of the RV. knows nothing of hell, the wicked being supposed to be annihilated by death. Evidence of the belief in some kind of hell is, however, not altogether wanting in the RV. Thus, 'this deep place' is said to have been produced for those who are evil, false, and untrue (4, 5^5). Indra-Soma are besought to 'dash the evil-doers into the abyss (*vavre*), into bottomless darkness, so that not even one of them may get out' (7, 104^3); and the poet prays that 'she (the demoness) who malignantly wanders about like an owl concealing herself, may fall into the endless abysses' (ib. ^17), and that the enemy and robber may lie below all the three earths (ib. ^). But such references are few and the evidence cannot be said to go beyond showing belief in a hell as an underground darkness. The thoughts of the poets of the RV., intent on the happiness of this earth, appear to have rarely dwelt on the joys of the next life, still less on its possible punishments⁹. The doctrine of the Brāhmaṇas is that after death, all, both good and bad, are born again in the next world and are recompensed according to their deeds (ŚB. 6, 2, 2^; 10, 6, 3^1), but nothing is said as to the eternity of reward or punishment¹⁰. The notion also occurs there that those who do not rightly understand and practise the rites of sacrifice, depart to the next world before the natural term of their terrestrial life (ŚB. 11, 2, 7^).