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| Hindu Hell: Visions, Tours and Descriptions of the Infernal Otherworld
ISBN: 9781599100906
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Italica Press, Inc.
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Religion ; History ; Language & Literature;
In the long tradition of Hindu literature there was a significant development in the concept of hell from the period of the Vedas (c.1500-1000 BCE) through the period of the Puranas (c.300-1500 CE). The earliest descriptions are vague, particularly in terms of topography, alluding only to an underground, dark, putrid place for punishing sinners. Later descriptions calculate the huge dimensions, and designate almost innumerable subdivisions, of hell. Hell descriptions have been collected here from eight Hindu texts: The Rig-Veda, Atharva-Veda [Veda of the Wise and the Old], The Mahabharata, The Ramayana, The Markandeya Purana, The Vamana Purana, The Padma Purana, and The Agni Purana. This second edition contains eight texts a new preface, introduction and bibliography, notes, glossary, and web resources. |
