Ayomaya (Naraka)
Ayomaya · ayas-maya, “made of iron”
Ayomaya, “made of iron”, 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 shaped like a box (mañjūshā), a cage of iron that blazes, and that the doers of pāpa thrown into it are crushed as sugarcane is crushed in a press. 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, with its thorns, knives, blazing embers, burning sand and foul water, where the servants of Yama drag the bound jīvas, hungry and thirsty, to Yama’s court. There 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.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 215
The iron naraka
Ayomaya is shaped like a mañjūshā, a box or cage. The doers of pāpa are thrown into it and crushed as sugarcane is crushed in a press. It too blazes with fire.
It is the fourth naraka Vyāsa names. Before it come Mahāvīci, full of blood and thorns hard as vajra, ten thousand yojanas wide, where the slayer of a cow lies for a lakh of years; Kumbhīpāka, a hundred lakh yojanas, with burning copper pots, sizzling sand and embers; and Raurava, sixty yojanas long and wide, filled with blazing vajra-arrows. After it comes Apratishṭha, made of filth, where the tormentor of brāhmaṇas falls 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