Taptaloha (Naraka)
Taptaloha · tapta-loha, “the heated iron”
Taptaloha is one of the narakas, the places of suffering ruled by Yama into which those who do pāpa (wrong deeds) are cast. The Brahma Purāṇa tells that the seller of liquor, the vadhya-pāla, the seller of poison and one who abandons a bhakta fall into it. Lomaharshaṇa tells this to the vipras in his account of the narakas and the deeds that lead to each.
Where the account is told
Lomaharshaṇa said to the vipras: “O vipras! Now hear about the narakas, Raurava and the rest, into which those who do pāpa are cast.” He named them in order: 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 narakas, supremely dreadful. These are the domains ruled by Yama, and in them are the servants of Yama, who use weapons, fire and poisons. Then he told which deed leads to which naraka.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 22
Who falls into Taptaloha
Taptaloha is the naraka of the seller of madya (liquor); of the vadhya-pāla, the one who guards the place of hanging, or, as the Telugu rendering also reads it, one who sang of a man as deserving death; of the kesara-seller, the seller of poison; and of one who abandons a bhakta, a devotee.
Taptaloha is not among the twenty-six names of the first list; it comes in the second part of the account, where each deed is matched with its naraka, after Taptakumbha and before Mahājvāla, the naraka of one who unites with his daughter or daughter-in-law.
“There are hundreds and thousands of such narakas,” Lomaharshaṇa says. Those who do pāpa leave this body, take yātanā-śarīras, bodies made for suffering, and are tormented there; those who act against varṇa and āśrama in mind, speech and body go to naraka. One who does pāpa and does not perform prāyaścitta goes to naraka; but for every pāpa the prāyaścitta is the remembrance of Kṛshṇa, and there is nothing beyond it. If one who has done pāpa feels remorse and remembers Hari, there is no greater means of puṇya than that, and he reaches Nārāyaṇa.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 22
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 22