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276
GÂTAKAMÂLÂ.

pains caused by hundreds of sharp spears on a ground illuminated by garlands of flames rising out of it. In that time they are made to believe that there exists something like a world beyond this.

33. 'There are others whose heads are encircled with flaming diadems of brass; others are boiled out in pots of brass. Of others the bodies are wounded by sharp stings of showers of weapons, and devoured by crowds of ferocious animals, who gnaw them off to the bones.

34. 'Others again, exhausted by toil, enter the salt water of the Vaitaranî, but that water is painful to touch like fire, and their flesh wastes away from their limbs, when in it, but not their life, kept up by their evil actions.

35. 'And those who afflicted because of the intense torment caused by burning, have resorted to (the hell named) Asukikunapa (the hell of unclean corpses as to a pond of fresh water, meet there with unparalleled pain. Their bones are brought to decomposition by hundreds of worms.

36. 'Elsewhere others undergo the pain of being burnt for a long time. Surrounded by fire, their bodies flame like iron staves surrounded by flames. Yet they do not burn to ashes, being kept alive by their actions.

37. 'There is sawing of others with fiery saws, cutting of others with sharp razors. Of others the heads are crushed with hammers quickly swung, so as to make them yell with anguish. There is roasting on a smokeless fire of others, fixed on broad iron-spits which pierce through their bodies. Others again are compelled to drink liquid brass looking like blazing fire, which makes them utter raw cries.

38. 'Some are assailed by spotted dogs of great strength who with their sharp-biting teeth tear off the flesh from their limbs; they fall on the ground with lacerated bodies, crying loudly with pain.

39. 'Of such a nature are the tremendous torments in the different hells. If thou, impelled by thy karma,