Aṅgāropacaya
Aṅgāropacaya · aṅgāra-upacaya, “the heap of embers”
Aṅgāropacaya, “the heap of embers”, is one of the narakas, the places of suffering in the domain of Yama into which those who do pāpa (wrong deeds) are cast after death. The Brahma Purāṇa tells that it is a naraka of fiercely blazing embers, and that one who has given a dāna (gift) to a vipra and then says “I did not give” falls into it. Vyāsa tells this to the munis when they ask him how the doers of pāpa travel along the southern road to Yama.
Where the account is told
The munis asked Vyāsa, “Tapodhana, tell us in full how those who do pāpa go along the southern road.” Vyāsa described that road, more dreadful than the dreadful, where the servants of Yama drag the bound jīvas, hungry and thirsty, to Yama’s court. On the way the Yama-dūtas tell the hungry jīvas that they gave nothing to the vipras and obstructed others who gave, and that the mountains of food they see belong to those who made sāttvika dāna. In the court Yama hears from Citragupta the account of each one’s karma, and has each offender punished in the very manner that Vasishṭha and the other maharshis laid down for each offence. Then Vyāsa said, “Hear the terrible form of the narakas and their measures,” and named them one by one, with the deed that leads to each.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 215
The naraka of blazing embers
Aṅgāropacaya is a naraka of fiercely blazing embers. One who has promised or given a dāna to a vipra and then says “I did not give” falls into it.
In Vyāsa‘s list it comes after Vajrakapāṭa, where the killer of a friend and the killer of one who came for refuge are bound with chains of vajra, and after an airless naraka of thick darkness where the seller of milk is tormented; one who obstructed a gift being made to a brāhmaṇa, the chapter says, suffers there, unable to move. After it comes Mahāpāyī, a lakh yojanas wide, where those who spoke untruths are thrown in head-down. The narakas Vyāsa names in this chapter are, in order: Mahāvīci, Kumbhīpāka, Raurava, Ayomaya, Apratishṭha, Vilepaka, Mahāprabha, Jayantī, Śālmala, Mahāraurava, Tāmisra, Mahātāmisra, Asipatravana, Karambhavālukā, Kākola, Kuḍmala, Mahāvaṭa, Tilapāka, Vajrakapāṭa, Aṅgāropacaya, Mahāpāyī, Mahājvāla, Krakaca, Guḍapāka, Kshuradhāra, Ambarīsha, Vajrakuṭhāra, Paritāpa, Kālasūtra, Kaśmala, Ugragandha and Vajramahāpīḍa, with others between them whose names are not given.
Vyāsa closes the account: those who turned away from dharma in mind, speech, body and deed must suffer in the very dreadful torments of Yamaloka for thousands, lakhs and crores of years.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 215
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 215