Mahāpāyī (Naraka)

Mahāpāyī

Mahāpāyī is one of the narakas, the places of suffering ruled by Yama into which those who do pāpa (wrong deeds) are cast after death. It measures a lakh yojanas. Those who spoke untruths (anṛta) are thrown into it head-down. Vyāsa describes it to the munis in the Brahma Purāṇa.

Mahāpāyī among the narakas

The munis ask Vyāsa to tell them in full how those who do pāpa go along the southern road to Yama. Vyāsa tells of that dreadful road and of Yama’s court. When a being’s fault is established, Yama commands his kiṅkaras, and they punish each offence in the very manner that Vasishṭha and the other maharshis laid down for it, and so cleanse the pāpa.

Then Vyāsa tells the terrible form of the narakas and their measures. After Aṅgāropacaya, the heap of blazing embers for one who promised a dāna to a vipra and then said “I did not give”, he names Mahāpāyī: it is a lakh yojanas, and those who spoke untruths are thrown into it head-down. After it comes Mahājvāla, terrible with huge flames.

At the end of his account Vyāsa says that those who turn away from dharma in mind, speech, body and deed must suffer the very dreadful torments of Yama-loka for thousands, lakhs and crores of years.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 215

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 215