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
เหล่าฤๅษีกล่าวว่า “จงฟังเถิด โอ้ผู้ประเสริฐในหมู่รากษส ถึงขนาดและลักษณะของมัน จำนวนของนรกทั้งปวงที่เริ่มด้วยรौरวะนั้นมีทั้งหมด ยี่สิบเอ็ด”
{ "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.