of four abodes of the damned. They are those of Dushmata, or Evil Thought, Dushukhta, or Evil Word, and Dushvarshta, or Evil Deed, together with the fourth and lowest hell, which has no specific name of its own in the Avesta, but stands in opposition to the highest Garonmana, and receives the epithet anaghra temah, or Endless Darkness.[1] The wicked soul reaches this darkest abode with the fourth stride. The realm known as duzh ahu, or Evil Existence,[2] or again as achishta anghu, or Worst Existence, are designations of hell in general.[3] The regions of hell, if we look to incidental allusions in the Avesta, are stinking,[4] dreadful and dark.[5]
The wicked souls reap in incessant tears the crop they have sown in the finite world. The gulf of gloom now yawns for them. The demon Vizaresha carries off in bonds the wicked souls to their doom.[6] Angra Mainyu orders them to be fed with the foulest and the most poisonous food in hell.[7] It is their own evil doings that bring them to woe.[8] They enter hell terror-stricken, like unto the sheep that trembles before a wolf.[9] A life of sorrow and suffering now awaits them.[10] The Evil Spirit exposes the wretched souls to the mockery of the infernal rabble.
