DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0306
294 Death, Funeral Ritesi and Ancestor-worship.
to traverse a dense forest whose leaves are swords; in another
it falls into deep pits; in another it is precipitated from
precipices; in another it has to walk on the edge of razors;
in another on iron spikes; here it stumbles about helplessly
in profound darkness; there it struggles through loathsome
mud swarming with leeches; here it toils through burning
sand; there its progress is arrested by heaps of red-hot
charcoal and stifling smoke. Compelled to pass through
every obstacle, however formidable; it next encounters a
succession of terrific showers, not of rain, but of live coals,
stones, blood, boiling water and filth. Then it has to descend
into appalling fissures, or ascend to sickening heights, or lose
itself in vast caves, or wade through lakes seething with fetid
ordure. Then midway it has to pass the awful river Vaitaram,
one hundred leagues in breadth, of unfathomable depth;
flowing with irresistible impetuosity, filled with blood, matter,
hair, and bones; infested with huge sharks, crocodiles, and
sea-monsters; darkened by clouds of hideous vultures and
obscene birds of prey. Thousands of condemned spirits
stand trembling on the banks, horrified by the prospect
before them. Consumed by a raging thirst, they drink the
blood which flows at their feet, then tumbling headlong into
the torrent they are overwhelmed by the rushing waves.
Finally, they are hurried down to the lowest depths of hell,
and yet not destroyed. Pursued by Yama's officers they are
dragged away and made to undergo inconceivable tortures,
the detail of which is given with the utmost minuteness in
the succeeding chapters of the Garuda-purana.
A description so monstrous would be scarcely worth repro-
ducing in any form did it not profess to represent an im-
portant article of the creed of a vast majority of our
fellow-subjects in regard to a future state. It might indeed
be thought that a belief in such horrors and in the possibility
of undergoing a fate so awful would be calculated to produce
a salutary deterrent effect on wicked persons, did we not
to traverse a dense forest whose leaves are swords; in another
it falls into deep pits; in another it is precipitated from
precipices; in another it has to walk on the edge of razors;
in another on iron spikes; here it stumbles about helplessly
in profound darkness; there it struggles through loathsome
mud swarming with leeches; here it toils through burning
sand; there its progress is arrested by heaps of red-hot
charcoal and stifling smoke. Compelled to pass through
every obstacle, however formidable; it next encounters a
succession of terrific showers, not of rain, but of live coals,
stones, blood, boiling water and filth. Then it has to descend
into appalling fissures, or ascend to sickening heights, or lose
itself in vast caves, or wade through lakes seething with fetid
ordure. Then midway it has to pass the awful river Vaitaram,
one hundred leagues in breadth, of unfathomable depth;
flowing with irresistible impetuosity, filled with blood, matter,
hair, and bones; infested with huge sharks, crocodiles, and
sea-monsters; darkened by clouds of hideous vultures and
obscene birds of prey. Thousands of condemned spirits
stand trembling on the banks, horrified by the prospect
before them. Consumed by a raging thirst, they drink the
blood which flows at their feet, then tumbling headlong into
the torrent they are overwhelmed by the rushing waves.
Finally, they are hurried down to the lowest depths of hell,
and yet not destroyed. Pursued by Yama's officers they are
dragged away and made to undergo inconceivable tortures,
the detail of which is given with the utmost minuteness in
the succeeding chapters of the Garuda-purana.
A description so monstrous would be scarcely worth repro-
ducing in any form did it not profess to represent an im-
portant article of the creed of a vast majority of our
fellow-subjects in regard to a future state. It might indeed
be thought that a belief in such horrors and in the possibility
of undergoing a fate so awful would be calculated to produce
a salutary deterrent effect on wicked persons, did we not