Subject: I was thinking…
Author:
Posted on: 2021-04-20 15:48:50 UTC
… the fire was a metaphor for blood 😂
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A headscratcher moment in Akutagawa Ryūnosuke's Hell Screen by
on 2021-04-20 09:57:23 UTC
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There's a description that reads "the infernal flames of Padma and Mahāpadma were rolling as though swallowing even mountains of spears and forests of swords" (紅蓮大紅蓮の猛火が剣山刀樹も爛れるかと思ふ程渦を巻いて居りました). Thing is, Padma and Mahāpadma – two levels of Buddhist Hell – are cold; anyone condemned to them will be chilled so bad they bleed profusely like red lotus flowers, hence the levels' names. Is the description above a blunder on the author's part or is this some fancy metaphor?
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Just varying mythologies? by
on 2021-04-20 10:31:44 UTC
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Any religion accretes variants as it spreads, and the Hindu/Buddhist complex of religions and myths has been spreading longer than most.
Christian Hell actually has exactly the same situation: the Bible mostly describes it as a sort of null-space, folk Christianity has it as a fiery pit filled with torturer-demons, Dante's Inferno gives it multiple levels with states of torture (but no torturer), the bottom of which is frozen...
On your specific question, Wikipedia is spectacularly useless. Are they two of the 14 Buddhist hells? Two of the 8 Hindu cold hells? Are they Lokas, or maybe beautiful Patalas? Or are they actually parts of Diyu, and not Buddhist or Hindu, but Chinese mythology?
It looks like Hell Screen is Japanese; given the number of Japanese Buddhist schools, I'd be amazed if you couldn't find someone to teach that Padma and Mahāpadma are on fire.
hS
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A more helpful wiki by
on 2021-04-20 14:36:12 UTC
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Wisdom Library's page Padma, Padmā, Pādma § Languages § Sanskrit dictionary provides the following:
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Edgerton Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary
Padma (पद्म).—(paduma) , m. or nt., ... (5) nt., also m., name of a hell (= Pali Paduma; compare Mahāpadma): Divyāvadāna 67.23; 138.8; Avadāna-śataka i.4.9 etc.; it is cold according to Mahāvyutpatti 4935; Dharmasaṃgraha 122, but hot (at least sufferers are boiled there) in Śikṣāsamuccaya 75.8, where (and in 10) the spelling is Padumo, n. sg., tho in prose!;So, there you go! Varying mythology confirmed. If you tug the thread some more, I'm sure you can find a reference to fire somewhere, too. {= )
~Neshomeh
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I was thinking… by
on 2021-04-20 15:48:50 UTC
Reply
… the fire was a metaphor for blood 😂