Vamana Purana — Sukesha's Boon & Twelve Dharmas, Shloka 50
Sukesha’s Boon, the Twelve Dharmas of Beings, and the Cosmography of the Seven Dvipas with the Twenty-One Hells
ऋषय ऊचुः शृणुष्व राक्षसश्रेष्ठ प्रमाणं लक्षणं तथा सर्वेषां रौरवादीनां संख्या या त्वेकविंशतिः
ṛṣaya ūcuḥ śṛṇuṣva rākṣasaśreṣṭha pramāṇaṃ lakṣaṇaṃ tathā sarveṣāṃ rauravādīnāṃ saṃkhyā yā tvekaviṃśatiḥ
Los sabios dijeron: «Escucha, oh el mejor de los rākṣasas, su medida y sus características. El número total de todos los infiernos, comenzando por Raurava, es veintiuno.»
{ "primaryRasa": "shanta", "secondaryRasa": "adbhuta", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }
FAQs
Enumeration (twenty-one) turns moral teaching into a memorable taxonomy: vice is not vague, and consequences are systematized. The pedagogical effect is to make ethical causality concrete and thus harder to dismiss.
As with many Purāṇic naraka lists, it is a cosmographic-dharmic appendix: it supports sarga/pratisarga-style world-description (including lower realms) and dharmaśāstric instruction, rather than genealogical narration.
“Raurava and others” establishes a canonical ordering: the cosmos is portrayed as graded, where suffering realms correspond to differentiated moral failures—an implicit claim that justice is proportionate and categorized.