English
In the 136th lino wc read : — " And when the barterer had escaped, he turned His claws on his companion ; so, pell-mell. Above the foss they grappled."— Trans, by J. W. 'I'Iiduuis. Compare also Canto xxviii, 30. ^ " Because our wounds heal ever and anon Ere we appear before the fiend again."— /t/., -il. ^ Siauf. " Kala mana Naraka (?) ' " There boil'd below a thick and pitchy mass. Daubing in every part the steep decline ; The pitch I saw, but not what therein was, Kxcept the bubbles by the boiling raisc<l, Heaving and sinking all." — Inferno, xxi, 17. SCKIPTUKES PROM THE CHINESE. 61 till tliey come to the sixteenth, which is the freezing cold hell. So it is men are punished who have committed sins of body, speech, or thought, and so acquired an evil karma. (2.) The Kala Sutra Hell,^ so called because the wretches confined therein are lashed with burning iron wires, their limbs hacked with iron hatchets, their bones slowly sawn asunder with iron saws. Moreover, the wind blowing on their lacerated flesh causes their bodies, already burnt and scarred, to corrupt with innumerable poisonous wounds. At length, these punishments being exhausted, they are ejected from the Kala-sutra-Hell into the Black-pebble-Hell, and so on through the whole to the freezing cold hell. Such are the punishments assigned to those who, during life, have been disrespectful to father or mother, Buddha or the priests. (3.) The Sanghata Hell.^ Here the bones and flesh of sinners are crushed by mountains falling on them or closing on them • iron elephants stamp them to pieces ; they are brayed in iron mortars, vast stones are hurled upon them, till their blood and secretions flow out on the ground — all these torments are united in this place of punishment.^ After enduring these for a long time the victims come forth and pass in succession through all the little hells as before. Those who have committed either of the three wicked acts Tproceeding from hatred, envy, anger) are punished here. (4.) The Eaurava Hell,* is so called from the constant shrieks which proceed from the sufferers — for the lictors hav- ing seized their victims, cast their bodies into iron caldrons, or on red-hot pans, till they cry out in their agony. These tortures they endure for a long time, and then emerge as before, and pass through the sixteen little hells. Murderers and poisoners are punished here. (5.) The next is called the great calling-out hell (Maha- rauravas) for here the victims are placed under iron hatchets ' Heh-sieh, i.e., black cord or thread. - Chung-hoh, i.e., assembled union. Some Sutras call it Fau-yah. ^ Hence the name " Samghata." ' Kiau-hwan. 62 A CATENA OF BUDDHIST and knives, and placed on burning pans, and roasted and fried over and over again, so tliat their cries are exceeding loud. Heretics and malefactors are punished here. (G.) The Tapana Hell. Here the victims are shut up within iron walls, and placed in an iron dungeon at the top of an iron tower, which both within and without is red with fire. Here their flesh is burned and charred to a cinder. Those who have roasted or baked animals for their food are punished here. (7.) This hell is called Pratapana. Here the guilty are thrown into a great lake of fire, and pierced through with iron spikes, so that, being unable to escape, they are burned in the fire. Those who despise and reject that which is good (apostates) and turn to do evil, are punished here. (8.) This hell is called Avitchi. Here the lictors, seizing on their victims, flay them as they stand, and then, holding them in fiery chariots, convey them through and through the iron city, whose flames miserably enwrap their bodies ; ten thousand poisonous blasts assail their senses on every side ; there is no cessation of their misery for a moment, and so it is called " no intermission." Men guilty of the worst crimes are punished here. The Saddharma prakasa sasana Sutra says: "The miseries of Avitchi are thousands of myriad times worse than those of the former seven." The Buddhanusmritti Samadhi^ Sutra says : " The Avitchi (A-pi) hell is eight thousand yojanas square, and is surrounded by a seven-fold iron wall; it has a seven-fold iron network, eighteen incense-caldrons, seven rows of knife-trees, four great copper dogs,^ eighteen infernal lictors, etc. When a wicked man is near death, the copper dogs cause the appearance of eighteen chariots, covered, as it were, with precious trappings, the fire blaze seems hke a gemmous lady. The. wicked man beholding it afar off rejoices much, and desires to be transported in it. The cold wind now blowing on his dissolved body, he cries 1 Kwau-foe-san-imii. Vide 11 as., § 172 and 174. 2 Demons (?) Compare the " dogs of Yama." SCRIPTURES FROM THE CHINESE. 63 out in his misery, "" Oli ! would that I could find a fire to warm me, or obtain a seat in one of these chariots !" So he is hurried off; the fire then bursts forth, and, bound hand and foot, he is carried on to Avitchi. Down the various chasms he descends till he comes to the lowest of all ! There King Jemma, in a loud voice, addresses him : '' Wretched man ! in life you sowed for hell ! Disobedient to father and mother, following every kind of heretical teaching ! — now born in Avitchi." Then he undergoes unutterable suffering ; during a great kalpa, every day and night of which equal to sixty small kalpas of men ; or if he has transgressed in the worst parti- culars, then his sufferings shall endure even for eighty-four thousand great kalpas, and even after that he shall endure similar pains in the other Narakas — throughout the worlds of space." We may reasonably speak of Avitchi, therefore, as the " Hell from which there is no deliverance.^^ OF THE EIGHT COLD HELLS. 14. The first is Avata.i The cold here is so great that it causes the flesh to break out in sores. The second Niravata.^ Here the cold is so intense that the whole body is scarified. The third, the A-cha-cha Hell, or the chattering hell, be- cause the teeth are constantly making this noise, with the cold. The fourth, the 0-po-po, or Havava hell, because the tongue makes a noise like this from the cold. The fifth, the 0-hau-hau, or Hahaha Hell, because of the noise the breath makes. The sixth, the Yu-po-lo, or Utpala Hell, because the flesh is covered with patches like the blue lotus. The seventh the Po-to-ma, or Padma Hell, because here the flesh is covered with patches like the red lotus. ' O-fan-to. 2 Ni-lai-fan-to. G4- A CATENA OF BUDDHIST The eighth is the Pan-to-li, or Pundara Hell, because the flesh is covered with patches like the white lotus. The Abidharma Shaster says : " Buddha declared that on the outskirts of all the Sakwalas there is a black interval, without sun or moonlight. Here are the great Narakas. Outside the iron mountains of every pair of Sakwalas are the cold hells. There are ten of these ; the first is called Avata, the tenth is Padma. Here the icy winds ever blow, and the bodies of the culprits covered with sores, and their teeth chatter ceaselessly with the cold. The place is dark, yet each one hearing the other thus sufiPering knows of his presence. The narrowest portion of this place is eight thou- sand yojanas. The depth and height cannot be ascertained. The greatest breadth is a hundred and sixty thousand yojanas.^' The San-fah-to^ Sutra says : " The duration of suffering in the Avata Hell is as if one were to fill a Kusula- measure, containing twenty pecks of hemp-seed, and to appoint a per- son to take one of these seeds every hundred years, then, when all were exhausted, one year of this hell would have elapsed. Twenty of these years make one of the Niravata years ; and so on in succession.^' The Ch'wang Tsun inscription says : " Again, there are ten Narakas. The first, Avata ; the length of a year, as it were a vaha of hemp-seed (according to the Djaana pras- thana Shaster, twenty pecks of piled up hemp-seed make a vaha; if a man take one of these seeds every hundred years, after exhausting twenty such heaps he would emerge from this Hell). The second, Niravata; duration of the year, equal to two vahas (/.e., the time taken to exhaust two vahas of hemp-seed, taking one, every hundred years), and so on down to the tenth. The whole of these Narakas are composed of copper and iron, the length and breadth one hundred yojanas.