Pūyavaha

Pūyavaha · pūya-vaha, “the one that flows with pus”

Tāla has other meanings too: see all meanings of Tāla.

Pūyavaha is one of the narakas, the realms of torment ruled by Yama. The Brahma Purāṇa names it among the narakas into which those who do pāpa are cast, and in its teaching on śrāddha it warns that whoever offers to the pitṛs the substances forbidden in the Vārāha śrāddha-kalpa falls into Pūyavaha, and drags his pitṛs down with him.

Among the narakas

Lomaharshaṇa tells the munis of the narakas, Raurava and the rest, into which those who do pāpa are cast. Pūyavaha is the seventeenth of the twenty-six he names: Raurava, Śaukara, Rodha, Tāla, Viśasana, Mahājvāla, Taptakuḍya, Mahālobha, Viyocana, Rudhirāndha, Vasātapta, Kṛmīśa, Kṛmibhojana, Asipatravana, Kṛshṇa, Lālābhaksha, Pūyavaha, Vahnijvāla, Adhaśśiras, Sadaṃśa, Kṛshṇasūtra, Tamas, Āvīci, Śvabhojana, Apratishṭha and Māvīci. There are many more, supremely dreadful. All of them are domains ruled by Yama, where the servants of Yama torment the beings attached to deeds of pāpa with weapons, fire and poisons.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 22

The forbidden offerings of the Vārāha śrāddha-kalpa

Vyāsa, teaching the munis the rules of śrāddha, tells of the śrāddha-kalpa that was seen by Vārāha and so is famed as the Vārāha śrāddha-kalpa. The substances it forbids must not be given to brāhmaṇas at śrāddha, nor eaten. Some of them bring the naraka-giving fault: whoever offers them makes the yajamāna fall, together with the pitṛ-devatās, into the naraka called Pūyavaha. They are:

  • kusumbha greens
  • jambīra
  • sigruka
  • kovidāra
  • piṇyāka (oil-cake)
  • viprusha
  • masūra
  • guñjana
  • śaṇa (hemp)
  • kodrava
  • kokilāksha
  • cakra
  • kambuka
  • padmaka
  • the cakora bird
  • the hawk
  • tāḷinī
  • the palmyra fruit

Rather than offer and eat these things forbidden by the Vārāha śrāddha-kalpa, Vyāsa says, it is better to eat one’s own flesh. If they are offered or eaten by mistake, without knowing, prāyaścitta must be done: living for seven days on fruits, roots, milk, curd, buttermilk, gomūtra and gruel removes the fault of eating forbidden food.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 220

Sources

  • Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 22, 220