The Doctrine of the Jainas, Described after the Old Sources c9.28

c9.28

Another arrangement in layers—though not represented in the Canon itself—goes by the way of *patthaḍa*.¹ In the 1st to the 7th region there are 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3 and 1 of such layers tiered one beneath the other, i.e. 49 in all. From the central hell of Simantaga in the uppermost layer of the Rayaṇappabhā measuring 4,5 mill. *joy.* in diameter² a succession of 49 hells leads off in every main direction, and a succession of 48 hells in every intermediate direction. In the second layer the numbers are 48 and 47, etc., up to 49, which is identical with the 7th region where the medium one is surrounded by 4 only. More extensive hells at certain places in these successions are called something like “eccentric” (*avakkanta-mahāniraya*) (Thāṇ. 365b). So far as these hells appear in successions they are either circular or quadrangular, while in other cases they may be of any shape possible. In the lowest region four triangular hells, called Kāla, Mahākāla, Roruya, and Mahāroruya, with their vertex pointing outward form a frame round the 5th circular one, called Appaiṭṭhāṇa.¹ The latter measures 100,000 *joy.* in diameter.² The different hells in the Rayaṇappabhā are 3,000 *joy.* in depth, and they are something like egg-shaped. Within them it is dark.³ except for a glow of fire,⁴ slippery with fat, pus, blood and filth, evil smelling as if of decay, and a touch causes pain. In the descriptions given by the Sūy. and Utt. (except the reference of Utt. 19, 48) the hells are considered hot only; in the Jīv. their three uppermost regions are hot, whereas the two lowest are cold; in the 4th and 5th they have both in the extreme; heat prevails in the former, cold in the latter.