Varaha Purana 200.40: Adhyaya 200, Shloka 40
Description of the Forms of Infernal Torments
Naraka Yātanās
Uttara Bhāga · Naraka-varṇana (Accounts of punitive realms)
शुष्कोदपाने धूमे च अधःशीर्षोऽवलम्बते ॥ ज्वाल्यते तीक्ष्णतैले तु कटाहे स तु पच्यते
śuṣkodapāne dhūme ca adhaḥśīrṣo 'valambate || jvālyate tīkṣṇataile tu kaṭāhe sa tu pacyate
shuShkodapAne dhUme cha adhaHshIrSho.avalambate || jvAlyate tIkShNataile tu kaTAhe sa tu pachyate
पापी को सूखे कुएँ में डाल देते हैं। धुआँ में उसका सर नीचे कर के लटका देते हैं। फिर उसे तेज़ तेल में जलाते हैं। बड़े बर्तन में उसको पकाते हैं।
Sandhi Notes
- शुष्कोदपाने = śuṣka + udapāne (स्वर-सन्धि)
- अधःशीर्षोऽवलम्बते = adhaḥśīrṣaḥ + avalambate (विसर्ग-सन्धि)
Varāha
Tamas (delusion, cruelty, heedlessness) leads to constricted consciousness—symbolized by wells, smoke, and cauldrons.
Practice clarity and restraint: avoid intoxicants and harmful indulgence; pursue sattvic habits, confession, and corrective action before patterns harden.
The sinner undergoes multiple regulated tortures: hanging head-down in a dry smoky well and being boiled/scorched in sharp burning oil in a cauldron.
Adharma yields repeated, varied sufferings—confinement, inversion, suffocation, and burning—without agency to escape.
Varaha Purana 200.43 (embers and stake); Varaha Purana 200.45 (filth pit and durations)
FAQs
The verse continues a broader Purāṇic inventory of punitive motifs (wells, smoke, cauldrons), contributing to the genre’s standardized moral-cosmological imagination.
No earthly location is identified; the “dry well” and “cauldron” are punitive features within the described otherworldly realm.
It underscores deterrence through consequence: unethical behavior is framed as leading to painful, structured retribution.
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