Mahātāmisra

Mahātāmisra · mahā-tāmisra, “the great darkness”

Mahātāmisra 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 is twice as wide as Tāmisra, full of leeches and snakes, wrapped in pitch darkness, and it gives the utmost sorrow. Those who killed their mother and father, and those who betrayed a friend’s trust, are hewn there with adzes as long as the earth lasts. Vyāsa describes it to the munis in the Brahma Purāṇa. It is a different naraka from Tāmisra.

Mahātāmisra 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. Tāmisra, he says, is a lakh yojanas, spread with swords, paṭṭiśas and clubs; thieves are flung into it and crushed there for a hundred kalpas. Mahātāmisra is twice as wide as Tāmisra. Leeches and snakes are there, and pitch darkness, and it gives the utmost sorrow. The killers of mother and father, and those who betray a friend’s trust (mitra-viśvāsa-ghātaka), are hewn there with adzes and suffer it as long as the earth lasts. After it Vyāsa describes Asipatravana, the cage of swords.

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