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280
SÚTRAKRITÂNGA.
split, burn him! The prisoners in hell lose their senses from fright, and do not know in what direction to run. (6)
Going to a place like a burning heap of coals on fire, and being burnt they cry horribly; they remain there long, shrieking aloud. (7)
Have you heard of the horrible (river) Vaitarani, whose cutting waves are like sharp razors 1? They cross the horrible Vaitarani, being urged on by arrows, and wounded with spears. (8)
The punishers pierce them with darts; they go in the boat, losing their memory; others pierce them with long pikes and tridents, and throw them on the ground. (9)
Some, round whose neck big stones are tied, are drowned in deep water. Others again roll about in the Kadambavâlukâ (river)2 or in burning chaff, and are roasted in it. (10)
And they come to the great impassable hell, full of agony, called Asûrya (.e. where the sun does not shine), where there is great darkness, where fires, placed above, below, and all around, are blazing. (11)
There, as in a cave, being roasted on the fire, he is burned, having lost the reminiscence (of his sins) and consciousness of everything else; always suffering (he comes) to that miserable hot place that is ever ready (for the punishment of evildoers) 3 (12)
1 Silâňka says that the water of this river is alkali and hot blood; compare Uttarâdhyayana XIX, 59, above p. 95.
? See the note on Uttaradhyayana XIX, 50, above p. 94, note i.
* The last two lines recur in verse 21 with the only difference that there kasinam stands for kalunam in this place ; yet the commentators offer a different explanation in the second place. In my translation I follow their interpretation both times.
