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" On which Buddha an- swered: "By using your supernatural power thus, you would destroy life rather than preserve it ; henceforth thei-efore we ordain that in purifying drinking-water, the common power of sight shall determine if it is sufficiently strained." ON THE GENERAL NAMES FOB HELL. 11. What we call '^ earth-prisons" in Sanscrit is called Niraya, which means "opposed to reason," or, "out of the right way," because the places spoken of, lie at the very bottom under the World of Desires (Abidharma). Again > Rules of the four divisions. SCRIPTURES FROM THE CHINESE. 57 they are called '^ NarakaSj" which word points to tlieir being- the abode of " wicked men" (Vibasha) ; thus the Vibasha Shaster says : " Underneath Jambudwipa are the great Narakas — above are the frontier Hells; there are also solitary hells in mountains^ valleys, and in hollows and desert places." The other continents have only frontier and solitary hells, but no great ones, whilst some affirm that the northern con- tinent has no hells. The occupants of these abodes have human shapes and human feelings — from their mouths pro- ceed constant shrieks, indicating intense suffering, but not one articulate word can they pronounce. These places of punishment are fashioned with brass and iron ; there is also an " iron city," trees covered with knives, boiling rivers,^ iron network, everything arranged according to the strictest Rule." There are many sorts of these miserable abodes, but we will in brief confine ourselves to three, viz.. The burning- hells, the freezing hells, and the frontier hells. THE EIGHT BURNING HELLS. 12. With respect to these we read in the Vibasha Shaster : " Under Jambudwipa down to the place of punishment called Avitchi,^ is forty thousand yojanas. The space included in this measurement tapers upward from the bottom like a heap of grain." The Sa-p^o-to Shaster^ says : " Below Jampudwipa there is a depth of earthy loam five hundred yojanas in thickness, below this five hundred yojanas of white clay. Below this is the Sandjiva-hell, and after this six others down to the Pratapana-hell, including a distance of nineteen thousand yojanas. Each of these hells is ten thousand yojanas in width, ' Compare " Phlegethon." 2 That is, according to the universal description given in Buddhist books of an abode "• perfectly adorned," that it has a surrounding rail, groves of trees, tanks of water, and a net-work ornamental enclosure ; only in this case the end is to torture rather than delight the occupants. ^ Wou-kan, 'Mio interval." < This may be the Shasters of tlie Sarvastivadah school. o8 A CATENA OF BUDDHIST but the height and breadth of Avitchi is twenty thousand yojanas." A Gatha in the Fah-yuen^ says : " The first seven Hells are 500 yojanas ajiart ; The lowest one 320,000 li beneath ; Its length and breadth alike, of brass and iron: In this the worst of men are born." Another Siitra says r " Outside all the mountain-kings of the four great continents, there is one mountain range distinct from the rest called the Iron-circle ; in height 6,800,000 yojanas, the length and breadth the same, hai'd as the diamond ; beyond this again is a similar circular iron range ; between these two is a very dark and vast interval, without one ray of light from the sun or the moon. Here are situated the eight great hells." With respect to the duration of life in these places of tor- ment, relying on the Abidliarma Shaster^ — " In the Sanjiva hell the number of years is five hundred. In the Kala- sutra hell a thousand years, and in each successive place of punishment double the period of the former one, down to the Tapana-hell, where the period is sixteen thousand years ; in the Pratapana-hell half a kalpa, and in the Avitchi-hell, a kalpa. The Kosha Shaster* says : " In the Sandjiva-hell a day and a night equal five hundred years of the Chaturmaha rajahs, down to the Tapana hell, where one day and night equal sixteen thousand years of the Nirmanazati heaven." Another Sutra' says : " One day and night in the Sand- jiva hell, is equal to 1 6,200 kotis of 3^ears of men (a koti is a hundred thousand). In the Kala-Sutra hell a di&j and night is equal to 32,400 kotis of years of men. In the • The Garden of tlie Law : this is probably the encyclopajdia known as the Fah-yuen-tchou-lin. ^ The In-pen Sutra, i.e., the cause-ground Sutra, it may be the Maha Nidana Sutra ; but this must be left for further consideration. ' Written by Vasubhandu. ^ This also was written by Vasubhandu against the \'ibaslia school. * The Kiao-liang-sheou-niing, i.e., the Sutra which relates to the roiuparative duration of the years of life. SCRIPTURES PROM THE CHINESE. 59 Sanghata-lieir one day and night is equal to G4,800 kotis of years of men. In the Eaurava-hell one day and night is equal to 129,600 kotis, in the Maha-Raurava hell 259,200 kotis, and in the Tapana-hell 518,400 kotis." The Kcliiti- garbha^ Sutra says : " To the east of Jambudwipa there is a region where there is a mountain called Iron-circle. In the black space behind this mountain, where there is neither light from the sun or moon, is a great hell called Aparavitchi.^ Again there is another called the Great Avitchi^ (Maha- vitchi) ; again there are on each of the four sides other hells (amounting to twenty-four in all), such as " that with winged knives," " fiery arrows,^^ '' crushing mountains,^^ and so on. Then thei^e are the calling-out hells (twenty-two in number), and others up to a hundred thousand. All these are con- tained within the great Iron-circle Mountains. This great earth in which we live has eighteen successive tiers of hells, amounting to five hundred in all, each haviugadistinctname." With regard to the Avitchi^-hell, its walls are in circuit some eighty thousand li, made of solid ii-on, and a thousand li in height. Flames of fire are continually bursting from above the walls. Within its precincts other hells are ar- ranged, all with diSerent names. In the middle of all is another hell called by the same name of Avitchi, eighteen thousand li round and ten thousand li high; the whole is made of iron, and the flames are continually lapping up and down — iron snakes and monsters on the walls ever belch forth fire from their open mouths, whilst in the midst the modes of torture are so arranged that each miserable victim stretch- ed out on the rack beholds thousands of others undergoing still more excruciating torments, which await him in his turn." The Satyasiddha-^ vyakarana Shaster says : " There are five Avitchi hells — 1, the immediate-recompense Avitchi, ' Ti-tsang-king. - Kih-wou-kien. Vide Vishnu Purana, 207, n. ^ -pai o-hi. * This evidently refers to the whole class of such Hells, probably that called Mahavitchi or Aparavitchi in the Purauas and in Menu. * Tching-shih-luu. GO A CATENA OF BUDDHIST because here are born immediately after deatli those wlio deserve it; 2, the woeful Avitchi, because of its utter misery; 3, the temporary Avitchi, because its torments last one kalpa; 4, life-loug Avitchi, because there is no cessation of pain ; 5, the form-like Avitchi, eighty thousand yojanas in length and breadth, ever filled with human forms. '' THE DIFFERENT SORTS OR MARKS OF PUNISHMENT, 13. The school of the Sarvastivadins^ speak of eight great liens_l^ Sandjiva.- The hands of the miscreants born in this hell are provided with iron claws, with which they tear and mangle each other's flesh ; or else, seizing with their hands knives and swords, they cut and hack each other to bits;^ Lying on the ground, their bodies thus torn and mutilated, dying by degrees, a freezing cold wind blows on them, and they revive. The infernal Lictors^ then cry out that they are alive. The unhappy wretches had thought within them- selves : " Now then life is over at last." Hence in the Agamas this hell is called the Hell of Thought (Sanjnya Naraka) as well as the Hell of Revival [i.e., Sandjiva) . Hav- ing for along time endured these miseries, they emerge from this Sanjnya^ (or sandjnana) hell, and are driven, terrified and aghast, into the Black-pebble Hell.^ When the tor- ments of this hell are finished, they are next driven into the Hell of Bubbling Filth -^ and so they go on from hell to hell > Sah-po-to. - Taug-hwoh or Kang-hwoli. a Compare the 22nd Canto of the Inferno.