Hell 1 of 7
Ratnaprabhā
रत्नप्रभा
The first and thinnest earth, and the only one with anything above it but sky. Its top layers are not hell at all.
It is 1,80,000 yojana thick and divided into three layers. The upper khara layer, 16,000 yojana of jewelled rock, and the 84,000-yojana paṅka layer below it are where the Bhavanavāsī and Vyantara gods live, not hell-beings. Only the lowest 80,000 yojana of water-thick earth holds the first hells.
The flat disc of Madhya Loka rests on the very top of this earth. We are, quite literally, standing on the roof of the first hell.
Its proper name is Dharmā; Ratnaprabhā is the descriptive one, naming what the earth is made of or looks like. It holds 13 storeys of hells stacked one below another.
Measurements and counts
| Position | 1st earth down |
|---|---|
| Proper name | Dharmā |
| Thickness | 1,80,000 yojana |
| Hells in it | 30,00,000 |
| Storeys | 13 |
| Shortest life | 10,000 years |
| Longest life | 1 sāgaropama |
| Leśyā | kāpota — dove grey |