As described by Father Vincenzo Sangermano
Edited and with notes by U Kyaw Tun, M.S. (I.P.S.T., U.S.A.). Set in html by UKT
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Of the states of punishment
Having thus explained all that regards the blessed and their habitations, we must now proceed to speak of the damned, of the regions they inhabit, of their states of suffering and the duration of their lives. fn025-01 In sec005 (Ch03) it has been said that there are four classes of the unhappy. The first comprehends animals that live on the earth or in the waters, or fly through the air. The second is that of the Preittā, the third that of the Assurichč, and lastly, the fourth includes those who are punished in the Niria, or what is properly called hell. And first with regard to animals. Some Burmese doctors affirm that the domestic ones, in the duration of their life, follow the lot of the persons to whom they belong; so that when the latter are long-lived, their animals are so likewise. Such animals as are not domesticated have a long or a short life according to the number of sins for which they have to do penance.
It has been ascertained that the elephant lives sixty years, the horse thirty, the ox twenty, and the dog ten. They assert that the louse and other similar insects live only seven days; and they argue this from a circumstance related in their books. A certain priest or Talapoin conceived an inordinate affection for a garment of an elegant shape, which he possessed, and which he diligently preserved to prevent its wearing out. He died without correcting his irregular affection, and immediately becoming a louse, took up his abode in his favourite garment. According to custom, the other Talapoins divided the effects of
UKT: Priest -- The ordinary meaning of the word "priest" (A person having the authority to perform and administer religious rites. ) is not directly applicable to the Myanmar word {ra.han:}. Myanmar Buddhism or Theravada Buddhism frowns upon all "rites", and as such "priests" are not essential part of life of a layman. A {ra.han:} is a person who has given up everything he has except for eight necessities of life, such as an alms bowl, three pieces of clothing, a razor to shave the head, etc. {ra.han:} do not take part in naming ceremonies (comparable to Christening) and marriage.
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fn025-01 For the common notions of the Burmans about future punishment, see the Abstract of the work called Nemi, Bigandet, ii. p. 162, where a virtuous prince is conducted by a heavenly guide through the regions of hell and paradise.
the deceased; and would have cut the garment in pieces, had not the louse, running frequently backwards and forwards, showed, by his extraordinary movements, that such a division was displeasing to him. The astonished Talapoins consulted their god Godama, who desired them to wait seven days before they proceeded to the division; and when they inquired the cause of this delay, he manifested to them the sin in which that Talapoin had died; and said, that as he knew that seven days after the louse would be dead, he had ordered them to wait six days more, lest, should they proceed to the division before that period, the louse might perhaps allow some expression of anger to escape him, for which he would be condemned to pass into some worse state of punishment.
Those who do not keep a guard upon their tongue, those who do not repress the inordinate affections of the heart or the vicious tendencies of the body, and those who neglect to give alms pass after death into the state of animals.
The second state of punishment is that of the Preittā, and of these there are various species. Some there are who live upon spittle, ordure, and other filth, and inhabit the common sewers, cisterns, and tombs. Others wander naked through the deserts and forests, continually sobbing and groaning, and are consumed by hunger and thirst. Others for the whole duration of a world are constrained to turn up the earth with a fiery plough: some feed upon their own flesh and blood, and with their own hands tear themselves with hooks: others, although they are a quarter of a juzenā in stature, have a mouth as small as the eye of needle; for which reason, they are ever tormented by cruel hunger: and lastly, there are some who are tormented inwardly and outwardly by fire.
All those who give alms to the Talapoins that do not wear the proper habit, all who do violence to Talapoins, whether male or female, or who injure the observers of the law, as well as all misers, will pass after death into the state of the Preittā.
The third infernal state is that of the Assurichč. Their habitation is in the base of a certain mountain, situated far remote from the abodes of men. They inhabit likewise the forests and desert sea-shores. Their sufferings are almost the same as those of the Preittā. There is another species called
Assurichč-preittā, that have a body three-quarters of a juzenā in height, and are so squalid and lean that they resemble skeletons. Their eyes project outwards like those of a crab, and they have a mouth in the upper part of the head, as small as the eye of a needle, and are therefore consumed by hunger.
All such as make use of clubs or arms in their quarrels will become Assurichč-preittā. Those also who offend or despise the observers of the law, or who, on the contrary, honour and advance the violaters of it, will pass to the condition of Preittā. In the states of punishment just described, as well as in the fourth called Niria, there is no fixed or determinate duration of suffering, as this depends on the species of the bad works committed by men in their lifetime. For, if it be heavy and weighty, according to the expression of the Burmese doctors, they will be made to suffer for a longer time. That is to say, according to the greater or lesser enormity of the crimes committed and the bad habits acquired, the punishment will last for a longer or shorter period.
The fourth state of suffering is called Niria, and this is properly the hell of the Burmese. It is situated in the deepest recesses of the southern island Zabudibā, in the centre of the great stone called Silapatavi, and is divided into eight great hells. Each of them has four gates, at the four sides; and in each gate there are four smaller hells; and besides these, other 40,040 smaller hells surround each great hell, being disposed above, below, on the right hand, and on the left. Every such group of hells has an extension of 10,000 juzenā.
The infernal judges are seated before the gates of the greater hells, and are called Jamamen. These are Nat of the Assurā species, as described in sec018 (Ch03), and both they and their satellites enjoy the felicity of the Nat. They do not, however, take cognisance of very heinous crimes, because the mere weight of these hurls the wicked down to hell, but only of those of lesser enormity.
UKT: Jamamen -- {ya.ma. min:}
It is a custom with the Burmese, when they give an alms, to pour out a vessel of water upon the earth, by which ceremony they think they make all their fellow-creatures participators in the merit of the action. If in performing this ceremony men
do not forget the Jamamen, these will be propitious to them should they chance to be thrown after death into the infernal regions, and will do everything in their power to procure their release. But if, on the contrary, in pouring out the water they did not intend to share with them the fruit of the good work, they will be received with a terrible aspect, their bad deeds will be, not only not excused or diminished, but rather exaggerated; and as they are unable to adduce anything in their justification, they will be given over to the infernal ministers to be tormented.
It has been noticed above that, according to the species of their bad works, the wicked are condemned to punishment. These species are four, according to the Burmese sacred books. One is called grievous, the other three are venial.
To kill one's own mother or father, to kill a priest or Talapoin, to strike or wound any God, as Beodat [Devadat, the relative and opponent of Gaudama] did who threw a stone against Godama, and to sow discord among Talapoins, are the five sins that constitute the grievous class; for which the wicked will have to suffer fire and other dreadful torments, in one of the greater hells, the whole duration of a world.
This species of sins is called the first, because it is the first to produce its effect: for although the individual who has committed one of these five sins may have done many good deeds, yet he cannot receive the reward till after the first species is expiated by his having paid the penalty of that great sin.
Still more grievous than these are the sins of the Deitti, fn028-01 or of those impious men who give no faith to the revelations of Godama, who deny the Niban, the transmigration of men into animals, or into other superior beings, and teach that there is no merit in doing charity or other good works, and who adore the Nat or Genii presiding over the woods and mountains. All these, should they die obstinate in such wickedness and irreligion, will be tormented not merely for the duration of a world, but eternally.
Among the minor species of sins, the first merely comprises every offence committed in the last moment of life, and this
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fn028-01 See Chap. XIV. sec. 4. fn028-01b
holds the first rank, as it is the first to take effect. All such sins are punished in one of the greater hells.
After this class come all sins of habit; which, although in themselves light, are nevertheless, on account of the evil habit, considered as punishable in the greater hells. The fourth and last species comprises all evil desires, and these are expiated, not in the greater hells, but in the minor ones that surround them.
Before speaking of the punishments inflicted in these, we must remark that, of the eight greater hells, four are called Avizė [Awichi], that is, hot, because there the punishment is by fire, and four Loghantreh, or cold, because sinners are there tormented by cold. It is necessary also to premise that the infernal days and years are not of the same length as ours, for a thousand of our years make but one day in the greater hells. In the smaller ones a day is equal to 500,700, or even 800 of our years.
I. All passionate, quarrelsome, fraudulent, and cruel men, all who in their deeds, words, or desires are either dishonest or lascivious, will be cut to pieces after death in one of the greater hells, with instruments of burning iron, and afterwards exposed to the most severe cold; and the parts cut off, returning again to their former state, will be a second time cut off, and exposed to the same cold; and in these alternate torments they will pass 500 infernal years.
II. All those who by signs or words insult their relatives or masters, priests, old men, or observers of the law, and all who with nets or snares kill animals, will be condemned to one of the greater hells, there to be tormented upon a fiery bed by continual lacerations with red-hot wire, and by being sawn with fiery scythes into eight or sixteen pieces, for the course of 100 infernal years.
III. Those who kill oxen, swine, goats, and such other animals, all hunters by profession, warlike kings, and ministers who cause culprits to be tormented or executed, will after death be pressed and squeezed by four fiery mountains in one of the greater hells, for the space of 2000 infernal years.
IV. Whoever does not assist his fellow-creatures, those who are accustomed to pluck animals or kill them by putting them alive into the frying-pan, those who in a state of intoxication
commit unlawful and indecent actions, they who dishonour or ill-treat others, will have their bowels burnt up by a flame entering through their mouths; and this punishment will last 4000 infernal years.
V. Whoever takes away furtively, or by deception, fraud, or open force, the property of others, such ministers and judges as receive bribes for deciding suits unjustly, mandarins and generals that desolated the enemy's lands, all who cheat by false scales, weights, or measures, or who in any way appropriate to themselves the goods of others, as well as all who steal or damage things belonging to priests and to pagodas, etc., all such will be tormented in one of the greater hells by fire and smoke, which, penetrating through the eyes and mouth and all the other inlets of the body, will burn them alive for the course of 8000 infernal years.
VI. Those who, after having slain deer, swine, and other similar animals, do skin them, pluck off their hair, or roast their flesh, the makers of arms, those who sell pork or turkeys, those likewise who sell wines or poisons, or set fire to villages, cities, or woods in order to destroy animals, those who with poison, or arms, or enchantments cause men to perish: all these after death, being hurled headlong from a very high mountain, will be received on the point of a red-hot spit, and cut in pieces by the infernal ministers with swords and spears: and this punishment will last 16,000 infernal years.
VII. The Deitti, or unbelievers, of whom we have spoken above, will be impaled with the head downwards, on a great red-hot spit, without being able to move on either side, in the greatest of all the hells.
VIII. Lastly, parricides, and those guilty of the sins that are comprised in the first or grievous class, will have to endure dreadful sufferings, for the whole duration of a world, in the midst of smoke, scorching flames, and other horrible torments, in the hell called the great Avizė, the pavement of which is formed of red-hot iron to the depth of nine juzenā.
We must now speak of the minor hells which surround the greater ones. Among these we must specify the hell of ordure, in which immense worms as large as elephants swim and bite the sinners who are their immersed; that of burning
coals; that of swords and other sharp weapons; that of knives, sabres, and other arms, with which the bodies of the condemned are cut to pieces; that in which the lungs, liver, and other viscera are torn out from the bodies of the guilty by iron hooks; that where they are cruelly beaten with fiery hammers; that in which melted lead is poured down their throats; that of thorns and briers; that of biting dogs; that of ravens and vultures, which tear the flesh with their bills and talons. Again, there is a place in which the condemned are compelled to ascend and descend the Leppan tree covered all over with the sharpest thorns; and another, in which sinners are forced to drink blood or purulent matter. All who honour not their parents, masters, and old men; all who drink wine or other inebriating liquors; all who corrupt the waters of lakes or wells, or break up the roads; all dishonest dealers; they who speak bitterly an impatiently, or beat with their hands or with sticks; those who despise the counsel of honest men, and afflict their neighbour; evil speakers, detractors, the passionate and envious; such as injure others, or torment them by putting them in chains; all who in word, deed, or desire are guilty of evil; lastly, those who afflict the sick with harsh words will be condemned to these minor places of punishment, to be there tortured, in proportion to the heinousness of their offences and evil habits. Besides these hells, there is another consisting of an immense caldron full of melted copper, to ascend and descend which, from on surface to the other, requires 3000 years. To this task are condemned the lascivious, that is to say, those who violate the wives, daughters, or sons of others; and those who through life, despising acts of charity and the observance of holidays, give themselves up to drunkenness and excess. Those equilateral spaces full of very cold water (sec006) (Ch03) are also, according to the Burmese books, so many hells, to which are condemned all who offend or insult their parents or the observers of the law. These after death are born anew, three-quarters of a juzenā in height, with hooked nails on their hands and feet, and are compelled to climb, like so many bats, through the obscure caverns of the mountains. Here they annoy and ill-treat each other, and, instigated by cruel hunger, tear each other's flesh, which, falling into those cold waters, is
first dissolved like salt, and then, by a fatality attending on their wicked deeds, reunites itself to the body, so to suffer new torments.
Before we pass to other matters, we must observe that not only in the southern island, but also in all these places of torment, beings may gain merit or demerit, according to their works and so pass to a superior or inferior situation. It is, however, only in this island that the perfect state of Niban can be attained: because for this it is requisite to see some God, and listen to his exhortations and revelations; which can happen in this island alone. In sec006 (Ch03) we have explained what the state of the Niban is: this cannot be said to have any specific seat; for it is a perfectly incorporeal and spiritual state of being, and deserves the name of annihilation rather than of existence.