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
رِشیوں نے کہا—اے راکشسوں کے سردار! ان کی مقدار اور علامتیں سنو۔ رَورَوَ وغیرہ تمام (دوزخوں) کی تعداد اکیس ہے۔
{ "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.