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Notes Bk. I
229
Categories
All infernal beings in seven hells
Asurakumāras till Stanitakumāras (see 34 below) Immobiles with one organ, e.g., earth-bodies, waterbodies, air-bodies, fire-bodies and flora-bodies Two-, three-, and four- organ beings Non-humans (animals) with five organs
Human beings Vāṇavyantara devas Jyotişka devas
Vaimānika devas
Numbers
1
10
5
3
1
24
Infernal beings are called Narakas. Naraka is a place wherein is born one with inauspicious karma.
23. Palyopama and sāgaropama are Jaina expressions used in those cases where figures have failed to give the number and aid is taken of comparisons like 'as many as the stars in the sky' or 'as many as the hairs on the human head'. Palyopama is itself like that. Ten ‘koļākoṭi'-times a palyopama gives a sāgaropama. The figures would safely run into billions of billions.
24. For all practical purposes, the pairs aṇamanti and usasanti, and paṇamanti and ṇisasanti, may be taken to be synonyms, used here together for the sake of emphasis, though some commentators have tried to introduce a subtle, though not very significant, distinction between the two.
Q. 4 could have been preceded by one, viz., whether the infernal beings are endowed with the faculty of respiration, but this has not been done. Apparently, they are so endowed with, as is made clear by Q. 4. where the duration of respiration is discussed.
25. According to
the Pannavanā Sūtra, infernal beings have incessant respiration. They are so miserable that they inhale all the time and they exhale all the time.
