Paritāpa (Naraka)
Paritāpa · pari-tāpa, “burning on every side”
Paritāpa is one of the narakas, the places of torment ruled by Yama, into which those who have done pāpa (wrong deeds) are cast after death. The Brahma Purāṇa describes it as made of the fire of pralaya, the dissolution of the worlds. One who gave poison to another and one who stole honey fall into it.
The naraka of the fire of pralaya
Vyāsa tells this to the munis when they ask him, addressing him as Tapodhana, how those who have done pāpa go along the southern road to Yama. After the road, the court of Yama and the words of Citragupta, he says: “Hear the terrible form of the narakas and their measures,” and names them one by one, each with the deed that leads there.
Paritāpa comes after Ambarīsha, the naraka lit by the kālāgni of pralaya where the stealer of gold falls for a hundred crore kalpas, and before Kālasūtra, made of threads of vajra, where those who stole others’ crops fall. Paritāpa itself is made of the fire of pralaya. The one who gave poison and the stealer of honey fall there.
Vyāsa closes his account of the narakas with these words: those who turned away from dharma in mind, speech, body and deed must suffer sorrows in the very dreadful torments of Yama-loka for thousands, lakhs and crores of years.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 215
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 215