Framed with the parable of the “messengers of the gods”, which are portents of mortality, this discourse expands the description of the power of clairvoyance or “divine eye” (dibbacakkhu), with a special emphasis on the descriptions of the torments of hell (niraya). This was a very popular discourse, with no fewer than six Chinese parallels and multiple references in Sanskrit literature. The Sinhala chronicle says it was taught as a primary text in Mahisamaṇḍala by Mahādeva, and in Sri Lanka by Mahinda, each time resulting in mass conversions (Mahāvaṁsa 12:29, 14:63).

There is a set of beliefs about hell that is common to Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains. This “hell complex” includes such beliefs as: hell is long-lasting but impermanent; there are many named hells; punishments are terrible and varied; the punishment is determined by kamma; and tortures are inflicted by hell wardens. This sutta appears to be the earliest full account of this hell complex in Indian literature. Below I briefly outline the development of the hell complex in Brahmanical literature (MN 130:10.1).

Such “messengers of the gods” appear as reminders for the dangers of mortality. Five appear here—birth, old age, sickness, punishment, and death—while AN 3.36 has three, namely old age, sickness, and death. At MN 83:4.6 we meet just one, the grey hairs of old age. In non-Buddhist texts, such messengers can also be celestial interlocutors in a more literal sense (eg. Mahābhārata 1.2.232b, 1.9.005d). | Compare the four signs that prompted Vipassī’s going forth (DN 14:2.1.1).

The history of hell in India begins with the Rig Veda, which speaks of evil-doers facing the “erasure of the wolf”, the “downfall” (2.29.6c), the “bottomless darkness” (7.104.3) “beneath all three earths” (7.104.11), the “endless abyss” (7.104.17), the “darkness below” (10.152.4). Atharva Veda similarly speaks of the “house below” (2.14.3a), the “deepest dark” (8.2.24). It also consigns a man stingy with cattle to the nārakaṁ lokaṁ, which seems to mean “the world of the hell beings” (12.4.36c); there is an equally vague reference to a “hell being” at Śukla Yajur Veda 30.5. These seem to be the earliest uses of the word naraka in the sense of “hell”; this sense is not found in early Pali (see note on DN 12:78.2). Jaiminīya Brāhmaņa 1.42 describes the “other world” in both hellish and heavenly terms (see too Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 11.6.1). It depicts the hellish torments taking place in regions of the “other world” rather than as a distinct hell realm; and it does not share many details in common with later accounts. Thus far the texts are pre-Buddhist. It is not until the much later Purāṇic literature that lurid descriptions of hells, usually numbered 21 or 28, become a standard feature, along with the rest of the hell complex. Several of the places mentioned here correspond with the Purāṇic hells.

I give a few examples of similar descriptions in the Purāṇas and the Jain Sūtrakṛtāṅga, without any attempt to be comprehensive. | The notion that one does not die despite the suffering is also found at Bhāgavata Purāṇa 5.26.28 and Sūtrakṛtāṅga 1.5.1.16. | The lifespan of one in hell is illustrated in the story of Kokālika (SN 6.10 = AN 10.89), which is repeated at Snp 3.10 with an expanded description of the hells that bears much in common with the present discourse.

Brahma Purāṇa 106.40–41.

Śiva Purāṇa 5.9.26; Devī Bhāgavata Purāṇa 8.23. There is a special “Upside-down hell” in Viṣṇu Purāṇa 2.63.

Agni Purāṇa 307.25; Śiva Purāṇa 5.9.9, 34, 44.

The Kālasūtra hell is made of burning copper (Bhāgavata Purāṇa 5.26.14).

Bhāgavata Purāṇa 5.26.15 describes how the sinner runs about in pain trying to escape.

Śiva Purāṇa 5.9.37.

“Needle-mouth” (sūcimukha) is one of the 28 Purāṇic hells, the destiny of scrooges, where one is stitched as cloth by a tailor (Bhāgavata Purāṇa 526.36; Devī Bhāgavata Purāṇa 8.23). Śiva Purāṇa 5.9.42–3 describes how sinners are devoured by sharp-toothed worms while rotting in mounds of flesh; Bhāgavata Purāṇa 5.26.17 says one is devoured by the same creatures one killed while alive.

Burning of remnant stubble is still a widespread practice in India, and it does indeed create hellish conditions.

The “Red Silk-Cotton Forest” (simbalivana) is one of the 28 hells (Bhāgavata Purāṇa 5.26.7; Devī Bhāgavatapurāṇa 10.21.11–28; Śiva Purāṇa 5.9.20). The red silk cotton tree (simbali, Sanskrit śālmalī, bombax ceiba) has a spiky trunk. Treading on the spikes could cause infections (Rig Veda 7.50.3). | This hell and the next reflect the miseries of struggling through thick, prickly jungles.

The “Sword-Leaf Forest” (asipattavana; also at Snp 3.10:25.1) is another of the 28 hells. This befalls those who destroy forests (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa 4.2.173; Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.2), while Agni Purāṇa 203.10 says it is for one who killed their mother, and Bhāgavata Purāṇa 5.26.15 says it is for one who strays from the Vedas.

The “Acid River” (khārodakā nadī) is yet another of the 28 hells (kṣārakardama, Śiva Purāṇa 5.9.8; Bhāgavata Purāṇa 5.26.30; Devī Bhāgavata Purāṇa 8.21; Skanda Purāṇa 6.1.226.54).

Brahma Purāṇa 106.25–32.

Śiva Purāṇa 5.9.45.

The “iron drink” (ayaḥpāna) is another Purāṇic hell (Agni Purāṇa 307.25–28; Bhāgavata Purāṇa 5.26.29; Devī Bhāgavata Purāṇa 8.23).

This statement is found only in the Pali text, although Chinese texts are effectively similar, in that they all speak of the Buddha’s clairvoyance.