Vajramahāpīḍa
Vajramahāpīḍa · vajra-mahā-pīḍa, “the great torment of vajra”
Vajramahāpīḍa, “the great torment of vajra”, is one of the narakas, the realms of torment ruled by Yama. The Brahma Purāṇa names it in Vyāsa‘s account of the narakas: it is made of vajra, the adamant of Indra‘s thunderbolt, and there the servants of Yama pare away, bit by bit, those who stole wealth, grain and gold.
In Vyāsa’s account of the narakas
The munis asked Vyāsa, whose wealth is tapas, to tell them in full how those who have done pāpa (wrong deeds) go along the southern road (dakshiṇa-mārga) to Yama. Vyāsa told them of that dreadful road, of Yama’s court and of Citragupta’s reckoning, and of how the Yama-kiṅkaras punish each fault in the very manner that Vasishṭha and the other maharshis laid down for it. Then he said: “Hear the terrible form of the narakas and their measures.”
Among the narakas he named, after an unbearable naraka of leeches and scorpions where the glutton lies for ten thousand years, came Vajramahāpīḍa. It is made of vajra. Those who stole wealth, grain and gold (dhana, dhānya and hiraṇya) suffer there, and the Yama-kiṅkaras pare the thieves there little by little. After it Vyāsa told of the torment of those who hack and eat living beings: the Yama-kiṅkaras make them eat their own flesh with their own hands until the end of the kalpa.
Vyāsa closes his account of the narakas with these words: those who have turned away from dharma in mind, speech, body and deed must suffer the very dreadful torments of Yamaloka for thousands, lakhs and crores of years.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 215
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 215