The names of the ten nirayas, according to the Kokālika Sutta, with tentative translations of their names, where possible, are:
1. Abbuda Niraya—“The Tumour niraya” or “The Fetus niraya”
2. Nirabbuda Niraya —“Free of Tumours niraya”
3. Ababa Niraya
4. Aṭaṭa Niraya
5. Ahaha Niraya
6. Kumuda Niraya —“White Water Lily niraya”
7. Sogandhika Niraya —“The niraya of Sweet Fragrance”
8. Uppalako Niraya —“The Blue Lotus niraya”
9. Puṇḍarīka Niraya —“The White Lotus niraya”
10. Paduma Niraya —“The Red Lotus niraya”
Each of these nirayas has a life-span twenty times that of the preceding one. We have seen that the life of a being in the Paduma Niraya is an immensely long one, many orders of magnitude greater than the lifetime of a universe either by ancient or modern reckoning.
This list, with its strangely ironic nomenclature, took on another meaning altogether in other schools of Buddhism. The Abhidharmakośa lists sixteen nirayas, eight hot and eight cold. The list of hot nirayas has been given above; the eight cold nirayas are obviously a variation of the list given in the Kokālika Sutta.
The Eight Cold Nirayas according to the Abhidharmakośa:
1. Arbuda
2. Nirabuda
3. Aṭaṭa
4. Hahauva
5. Huhuva
6. Utpala
7. Padma
8. Mahāpadma (AK 3:5, p. 459)
The names are said to derive either from the noises beings there make subjected to the intense cold (“aṭaṭaṭa … ”), or from the shapes the bodies of the beings assume, like a lotus. The concept of cold nirayas is not found in the suttas or the oldest Pali commentaries, i.e. those of Buddhaghosa, but is mentioned in Dhammapāla’s commentary to the Udāna (Ud-a 2:8).
3:3:19 LOHAKUMBHĪ NIRAYA
The Lohakumbhī (“copper cauldron”) Niraya is gigantic cauldron filled to the brim with molten copper into which beings are thrown: (Sn-a 3:10)
During the time of the Buddha Kassapa, when the life-span of humans was twenty thousand years, there lived in Bārāṇasi four rich young men who made a sport of lavishing their wealth upon the wives of other men and thereby seducing them. For twenty thousand years they thus carried on, committing many acts of adultery.
When they died all four were born into Avīci Niraya and there suffered for the whole interval between two Buddhas. When they passed away from Avīci, the results of their bad kamma were not completely exhausted and they were reborn into a copper cauldron (lohakumbhī) sixty yojana in size. There they were boiled, rolling about like grains of rice in a cook-pot. They sank down for thirty thousand years until they touched the bottom of the cauldron, then rose up for another thirty thousand years before they reached the surface again. When they broke through the surface, the each of the four wished to utter a stanza, but it was impossible for them to utter more than one single syllable before they rolled over and began sinking to the bottom again (Dhp-a 5:1).
On two occasions, the four syllables “Du, Sa, No, So” were heard as terrible sounds in the night by human kings. Very long ago they were heard by Brahmadatta of Bārāṇasi and in the Buddha’s time they were heard by Pasenadi of Kosala (Jāt 314). In both incidents, the brahmin advisers of the king said this indicated great danger and suggested a big sacrifice of animals and human victims as a preventive measure. These holocausts were prevented by the intervention of the Bodhisatta or the Buddha who saved the king from making terrible kamma. In Pasenadi’s case, upon hearing the full explanation of the sounds, he also abandoned an evil desire to have another man’s wife (Dhp-a 5:1 & Jāt 314). Versions or fragments of this story occur several times, with some variations, in the sources.430 The Jātaka version has the four adulterers each born into a separate cauldron. In the Saṃyutta Commentary the place of their torment is named as the Nandopananda Lohakumbhī.
One more famous sufferer in Lohakumbī is Ajātasattu, the king of Magadha, who conspired with Devadatta and killed his father King Bimbisāra. He will be released after only a single journey to the bottom of the cauldron and back, sixty thousand years in all. His time will be cut short because he took refuge in the Triple Gem before the end of his life (DN-a 2).
In general, there is very little consistency of detail in the descriptions of Lohakumbhī. Sometimes the word seems to refer not to a separate niraya, but only to a particular mode of torture in an unspecified niraya. We have already seen that one of the preliminary tortures before being thrown into Avīci is boiling in a copper cauldron (MN 130). There neither is agreement as to the size of Lohakumbhī. While the Dhammapada Commentary gives it as sixty yojana, the Sutta Nipāta Commentary tells us that Lohakumbhī extends under the whole earth (pathavipariyantika), and is four hundred and twenty yojana in depth (Sn-a 3:10). The substance in the cauldron is said to be molten copper (ibid.) or “corrosive copper heated to boiling” (pakkuthita khāralohodaka) (Jāt 314).
Three stanzas from the Sutta Nipāta add further variety to the picture:
Then they enter cauldrons of copper ablaze with fire;
There they suffer for a long time jumping around in the flames.
Then the evil doers are cooked in a mixture of pus and blood.
Whichever way they turn, they are soiled by the touch of the foul substance.
The water is the abode of worms, where the evil ones are cooked.
There is no place of refuge, as the cooking pots (kapallā) are all around. (Sn 3: 10)
As a final curiosity we may mention the explanation for the hot springs of Lake Tapodā near Rājagaha. It is said that a vast petaloka (realm of ghosts) surrounded the city and that the springs are fed by an underground stream which passes between two mahālohakumbhinirayānas, “great copper cauldron nirayas” (MN-a 133 & SN-a 1:20). This is a good example of the blurred boundaries between the realms which are often less clearly defined when we closely examine the details than they appear from neat summary lists.
3:3:20 LOKANTARA NIRAYA
One exceptional niraya is the Lokantara Niraya, “the Niraya Between-the-Worlds.” The cakkavālas (“world-systems”) are round at the base, bounded by a ring of tall iron mountains. These cakkavāḷas are infinite in number and extend horizontally through space in all directions. They are tightly spaced, and the rows are staggered, so that wherever three of them come together “like three cart-wheels,” (DN-a 14) the iron mountain rings touch and a roughly triangular space is left between. It is in these empty spaces between the worlds that the Lokantara Nirayas are found.
This in-between place is a void abyss. There is nothing above, no ground below, only the universal water on which the world-systems rest and everywhere a profound darkness because the orbits of the suns and moons of the surrounding cakkavālas are lower than the tops of the iron mountains (ibid.). The beings that are born there have bodies three gavutas in size.431 They are blind because no eye-consciousness can arise there. They cling like bats to the outer walls of the iron mountains, hanging upside-down (DN-a 14). Their world is extremely cold (MN-a 2).
For the most part, each being in Lokantara Niraya is totally alone, unaware that other beings even exist. However, on the four great occasions of a Buddha’s life, when he descends into the womb, when he is born for the last time, when he attains Buddhahood and when he turns the Wheel of the Dhamma, a great light illuminates even Lokantara Niraya. The beings there are filled with wonder and exclaim, “other beings are born here too!” (DN 14)
Otherwise, their only contact with each other is accidental and fatal. As they creep along the surface of the mountain wall, on rare occasions two brush against each other in the dark. Each imagines that he has found something to eat. They struggle together and end up losing their grip on the wall, falling to the world-supporting waters (lokasandhārakaudake) below. Because of that water’s extremely caustic nature, they are dissolved “like
lumps of flour” (DN-a 14).
Kammic deeds that lead to rebirth in Lokantara Niraya include grave offences against one’s mother or father, or against righteous samaṇas and brahmins, or habitual killing of others by the sword (AN-a 4: 127). However, Lokantara Niraya is especially associated with tenaciously holding to wrong views; this darkness of the mind results in the profounder darkness of the niraya (Jāt 545, Eng. 544). One late source states that this is the special niraya of the asuras.432
3:3:21 OTHER MISCELLANEOUS NIRAYAS
At one time, the Buddha was approached by a famous entertainer, Talapuṭa, the leader of a troupe who travelled about performing shows which featured singing, dancing and acting. He asked the Buddha if it was true what was said by the teachers of old in the actor’s lineage, that those entertainers who delighted large crowds of people with truth and lies (saccālikena) would be reborn among the laughing devas (pahāsānā devā). The Buddha refused to answer at first, until asked for the third time, it being a rule often seen in the suttas, that a Tathāgata always answers when asked three times. The Buddha then stated that actors who by their performances lead beings further into lust, anger and delusion will end up being reborn into the Pahāso Niraya (“the laughing niraya”) (SN 42:2). There, the nirayapālas sing and dance dressed in the manner of stage performers as they torture the former actors (SN-a 42:2).
In a parallel passage the Buddha is asked by a mercenary captain whether it is true that a soldier who fights well and dies in battle is reborn among the Parajitānā Devas (“the slain-by-another devas”). Once again, he is told after asking three times that one that lives by battle with thoughts of destruction and killing in his mind actually ends up reborn in the Parajitānā Niraya (SN 42:3). There, the beings armed with the five weapons, and bearing shields, mount chariots and are tortured by making continual battle upon each other (SN-a 42:3).
The commentary to both of these adjacent suttas states that these are not separate nirayas, but sections within Avīci. This is probably another attempt by the commentators to constrain the multiplication of nirayas and preserve some kind of coherent scheme.
3:3:22 THE ILLUSORY NATURE OF NIRAYA
Consider the following story taken from the Catudvāra Jātaka:
Mittavindaka went to sea as a merchant. Because he had committed the evil kamma of striking his mother, the ship was becalmed in mid-ocean and would go no further. The sailors cast lots, determined Mittavindaka as the cause of the evil influence and cast him adrift on a raft. As soon as he was gone, a fair wind sprang up and the ship carried on its way.
As for Mittavindaka, floating on his raft he came upon an island. There he saw a crystal palace with four beautiful women. These were vemānikapetīs (“mansion ghosts”) who enjoyed seven days of heavenly bliss followed by seven days of peta-like misery.433 For one week he enjoyed deva-like bliss in their company, but when they turned into petas he returned to his raft.
Floating along, he came upon one island after another. The next had a palace of silver and eight maidens. These also were vemānikapetīs and when after seven days they lost their beautiful forms, turning into wretched petīs, Mittavindaka again took to his raft. In the same way he visited a gem palace with sixteen women and a golden palace with thirty-two. All turned into petīs after seven days.
Leaving the island of the golden palace, his raft floated towards a city surrounded by a wall with four gates. In truth, this was an ussada niraya, where many beings suffered the results of their kamma. But to Mittavindaka it appeared as a city adorned with decoration. He entered the city, determined to make himself its king. There he saw one of the nerayikasattas with a razor-wheel upon his head. But to Mittavindaka it appeared as a lotus-crown. The five-fold bondage across the being’s chest appeared to Mittavindaka as a decorated breast-plate, the blood trickling from his head as an anointment of red sandalwood and the suffering being’s groans of agony sounded like sweet singing.
Mittavindaka addressed the being, “Good sir, you have worn that lotus long enough! Give it to me.” The other replied, “It is no lotus, but a razor-wheel.” “Ha! You say that because you do not wish to give it up. Give it here!” The nerayikasatta thought to himself, “It must be that my kamma has reached its end. This fellow, like me, must have struck down his mother. Let him have the wheel!” He took off the razor-wheel and placed it on Mittavindaka’s head. At that instant, the wheel crushed Mittavindaka down and he knew what it was. He cried aloud, “Take back the wheel! Take back the wheel!” But the other had disappeared. (Jāt 439)
This story illustrates in a vivid way several themes that we have seen throughout our examination of niraya. It is often stated that the flames and other tortures of niraya are generated by the kamma of the beings suffering there. Some early interpretations held that even the nirayapālas were illusory creations of kamma, and not real separate beings. The role of illusion tricking beings into suffering has been seen before, with the Vetaraṇi for instance seeming to be a cool refreshing river until the being goes to drink and falls into the caustic water filled with razor-like iron lotuses. In a deeper sense, we could say that all of saṃsāra is a kamma-created realm of illusion, but here in niraya it is more obviously so.
The story of Mittavindaka the merchant, with its dream-like quality is more than a little reminiscent of the Tibetan concept of a post-mortem journey through the bardo realms. One way of reading this story is to assume that Mittavindaka in fact drowned as soon as he was tossed from the ship and was driven deeper and deeper into realms of suffering by his own lust.
3:3:23 ASURAS
The asuras are a separate class or race of beings who dwell at the foot of Mt Sineru and are perpetually at war with the devas. In English translation they are sometimes referred to as “titans” or as “anti-gods.” The theme of a war in heaven, and the overthrow of an older race of gods by a new generation, is found in many Indo-European cosmologies. In Greek myth we have the Olympians led by Zeus battling the titans, and in the Norse version it is the gods of Asgard against the storm-giants. This would seem to indicate that the motif is a very ancient one, pre-dating the expansion of the Aryans out of their original homeland.
The name asura is found already in the Ṛg Veda. In the earliest times it was no more than a general term applied to the gods. This is mirrored in the Persian ahura, which refers to the good deities, whose chief is Ahura Mazda. In India, however, the asuras came to be identified as a separate class opposed to the devas, who were also called sura so that we have the conflict between the suras and the asuras, “gods” and “anti-gods.” The devas or suras came to represent the forces of light and spiritual progress while the asuras were the partisans of darkness and the lower appetites.434
The Buddhist version of the asuras is close to this latter conception. They were a race of deities older than the devas, the original inhabitants of Tāvatiṃsa. They are definitely portrayed as of a lower spiritual nature than the devas. A passage in the Aṅguttara Commentary describes the devas as virtuous, beautiful and pleasing whereas the asuras are simply “vile” (bībhaccha) (AN-a 4: 91). The asuras are listed among the four unhappy states of rebirth together with the beings in niraya, animals and petas (MN-a 62). The asuras as portrayed in the Pali sources are rough, prone to anger, and not very bright or courageous.
The separation of the asuras and devas, and the origin of their conflict is part of the story of Magha and his companions who were reborn as Sakka and the rest of the Thirty-Three.435 When Sakka and the rest appeared in Tāvatiṃsa, the asuras were already dwelling there. The story of what happened next is told several times in the commentaries, with some variations.
The Jātaka Commentary version is the simplest:
At that time, the asuras were dwelling in Tāvatiṃsa. Sakka, king of the devas, said, “I will not share this kingship.” He gave the asuras a divine drink (dibbapāna) which made them drunk and taking them by the feet threw them down Mt Sineru. (Jāt 31)
The story as told in the Dh
ammapada Commentary is a little different:
The asuras then lived in Tāvatiṃsa. They said, “New devas have been born!” They prepared some divine drink (dibbapāna). Sakka made sure that his own company did not drink any. The asuras drank as much as they liked. Sakka said, “I will not share the kingship with such as these,” and gave order to take the asuras by the feet and throw them head first down to the great ocean. (Dhp-a 2: 7)
The Majjhima Commentary adds more detail:
At that time the asura folk (asuragaṇā) lived in the Tāvatiṃsa deva-realm. They were alike to the devas in appearance and in life-span. When they saw Sakka and his company they prepared a drinking festival (mahāpāna) to greet the newly arisen devas. Sakka instructed his companions: “We made our own merit, it was not done with these others. Do not drink the wine (gaṇḍapāna). It will make you intoxicated.” So they did not. The foolish asuras drank it and fell into a drunken sleep. Sakka, the king of the devas, ordered his followers to take them by the feet and throw them down head first to the foot of Mt Sineru. (MN-a 37)
In the version from the Saṃyutta Commentary we learn why they are termed asura:
After their death, the thirty-three companions arose in the deva-realm. The previous devas (sesadevatā) saw the great splendour of the newcomers, surpassing theirs, and said, “New devas have arisen!” The resident devas prepared some fragrant beverage (gandhapāna). Sakka ordered his own company, “My dears, do not drink any of this. Drinking it will make you intoxicated.” They obeyed. The resident devas brought out the drink in golden vessels and drank as much as they liked. Having drunk, they fell asleep on the golden earth. Sakka said, “Take them by the feet.” Sakka’s companions threw the resident devas to the foot of Mt Sineru. Half-way down the slope of Mt Sineru, they regained consciousness and cried out, “Good sirs! We won’t drink liquor! We won’t drink liquor!” (na suraṃ pivimha) and so they acquired the name of asura (a-sura = “no liquor.”) (SN-a 11:1)
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