Adhyaya 70
Description of Yama’s Torments and the Discernment of Sin and Merit
This chapter, introduced by Mātali and continued in a descriptive narrative voice, sets forth a fierce catalogue of punishments within Yama’s domain. Sinners—especially grave offenders such as brāhmaṇa-slayers—are portrayed enduring many torments: burning in dung-fire, assaults by predators and venomous beings, crushing beneath elephants and horned beasts, and harassment by ḍākinīs and rākṣasas. Disease is added to their suffering, and judgment is pictured through a “great balance,” while cosmic violence rages around them—howling winds, rain of boulders, thunderbolts, meteors, embers, and dust-storms. The passage ends with a Dharma-teaching, declaring that the discernment between puṇya and pāpa has been explained, within the wider narrative frame of Vena, Pitṛ-tīrtha, and Yayāti.
Shlokas
Verse 1
मातलिरुवाच । यमपीडां प्रवक्ष्यामि महातीव्रां सुदारुणाम् । भुंजंति पापिनः सर्वे क्रूरास्ते ब्रह्मघातकाः
Mātali said: “I shall describe the torments of Yama—exceedingly intense and most dreadful—which all sinners endure, those cruel slayers of brāhmaṇas.”
Verse 2
क्वचित्पापाः प्रपच्यंते तीव्रेण करिषाग्निना । क्वचित्सिंहैर्वृकैर्व्याघ्रैर्दंशैः कीटैश्च दारुणैः
Some sinners are cooked in the fierce fire of burning dung; elsewhere they are tormented by lions, wolves, tigers, and by dreadful biting creatures and worms.
Verse 3
क्वचिन्महाजलौकोभिः क्वचिदाजगरैः पुनः । मक्षिकाभिश्च रौद्राभिः क्वचित्सर्पैर्विषोल्बणैः
In some places there were huge leeches; in other places, again, there were great pythons; elsewhere there were fierce flies, and in some places serpents swollen with deadly poison.
Verse 4
मत्तमातंगयूथैश्च बलोत्कृष्टैः प्रमाथिभिः । पंथानमुल्लिखद्भिश्च तीक्ष्णशृंगमहावृषैः
And they are assailed by herds of intoxicated elephants—mighty and violent—along with great bulls of sharp horns that tore up the roadway.
Verse 5
महाशृंगैश्च महिषैर्दुष्टगात्रप्रबाधकैः । डाकिनीभिश्च रौद्राभिर्विकरालैश्च राक्षसैः
—with great-horned buffaloes that assail and torment the bodies, with fierce ḍākinīs, and with dreadful, terrifying rākṣasas.
Verse 6
व्याधिभिश्च महाघोरैः पीड्यमाना व्रजंति ते । महातुलां समारूढा दह्यमाना दवानले
Afflicted by dreadful, severe diseases, they go on their way; having mounted the great balance of judgment, they are burned in a blaze like a forest fire.
Verse 7
महावेगप्रधूतास्ते महाचंडेन वायुना । महापाषाणवर्षेण भिद्यमानाश्च सर्वतः
They were hurled about by a violently raging wind of tremendous force, and on every side they were being smashed by a great rain of boulders.
Verse 8
पतद्भिर्वज्रनिर्घोषैरुल्कापातैश्च दारुणैः । प्रदीप्तांगारवर्षेण हन्यमाना व्रजंति ते
Struck by crashing thunderbolts, by dreadful showers of meteors, and by a rain of blazing embers, they go on—beaten and tormented as they proceed.
Verse 9
महता पांसुवर्षेण पूर्यमाणा यमं गताः । ये नराः पापकर्माणः पापं भुंजंति दारुणम्
Those men who commit sinful acts, filled and overwhelmed by a great rain of dust, go to Yama and undergo dreadful suffering for their sins.
Verse 10
एवं पापविशेषेण पापिष्ठाः पापकारकाः । नरकं प्रतिभुंजंति बहुपीडासमाकुलम्
Thus, by the particular gravity of their sins, the most sinful—those who commit sinful acts—experience hell, overwhelmed by many torments.
Verse 11
एतत्ते सर्वमाख्यातं विवेकं पुण्यपापयोः । अन्यत्किं ते प्रवक्ष्यामि धर्मशास्त्रमनुत्तमम्
Thus have I fully explained to you the discernment between merit and sin. What more shall I declare to you—this unsurpassed teaching of Dharma?
Verse 70
इति श्रीपद्मपुराणे भूमिखंडे वेनोपाख्याने पितृतीर्थवर्णने ययाति । चरिते सप्ततितमोऽध्यायः
Thus, in the Śrī Padma Purāṇa, in the Bhūmi-khaṇḍa, within the narrative of Vena, in the description of the Pitṛ-tīrtha, in the account of Yayāti—ends the seventieth chapter.