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128
TATTVĀRTHA SŪTRA
those hells is 1, 3, 7, 10, 17, 22 and 33 Sāgaropamas respectively. 6.
The loka is divided into three portions-viz. the lower, middle and upper. The lower portion is understood to start from a distance of 900 yojanas down below the level of the mountain Meru; it stands in ākāśa like a down turned earthen bowl-that is to say, it is found to be increasingly more extensive as one moves downwards. The volume covering 900 yojanas above the level of the mountain Meru and 900 yojanas below it—that is a volume 1800 yojanas thick-constitutes the middle loka-portion whose length is equal to its breadth and which is like a jhālara (a musical instrument) in shape. The entire loka lying above its middle-portion constitutes its upper-portion which in shape is like a mrdanga (also a musical instrument).
The grounds constituting the residing place of the hellish beings are called hellish-grounds and are situated in the lower loka-portion. Such grounds are seven in number and they rather than standing side by side with one another lie one below another. They are not equal to one another in length and breadth but the further down a ground is situted the greater are its length and breadth. Thus the length and breadth of the second ground are greater than those of the first, those of the third greater than those of the second, and so on till we find that the length and breadth of the seventh ground are greater than those of the sixth.
These seven grounds are situated one below another but they do not stand tightly close to one another. For a very huge gap divides one of those grounds from another. And this gap is occupied by dense ocean, dense air, rarefied air and ākāśa arranged in this very order one below another. That is to say, down below the first hellish ground there lies dense ocean, down below the dense ocean dense air, down below the dense air the rarefied air, and down below the rarefied air ākāśa. After ākāśa comes the second hellish ground. In between the second and third hellish grounds too dense ocean etc. lie in exactly the above order. And similarly uptil the seventh hellish ground it is found
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