जै · The Jain Encyclopedia
Hell 3 of 7

Vālukāprabhā

वालुकाप्रभा

The sand earth, and the last of the three that are purely searing.

The last of the purely hot earths. Below this, cold begins to take over, and the texts describe the cold of the lower earths as far worse than the heat of the upper.

Hell-beings here have bodies that reassemble as fast as they are destroyed, which is why nothing here is fatal and everything here is survivable for the full term.

Its proper name is Meghā; Vālukāprabhā is the descriptive one, naming what the earth is made of or looks like. It holds 9 storeys of hells stacked one below another.

1 Ratnaprabhā30,00,000 hells · 13 storeys1,80,000 yojana thickasaṃkhyāta yojana · not to scale2 Śarkarāprabhā25,00,000 hells · 11 storeys1,32,000 yojana thick3 Vālukāprabhā15,00,000 hells · 9 storeys1,28,000 yojana thick4 Paṅkaprabhā10,00,000 hells · 7 storeys1,20,000 yojana thick5 Dhūmaprabhā3,00,000 hells · 5 storeys1,18,000 yojana thick6 Tamaḥprabhā99,995 hells · 3 storeys1,16,000 yojana thick7 Mahātamaḥprabhā5 hells · 1 storeys1,08,000 yojana thickKhara · 16,000 · Vyantara above, Bhavanavāsī belowPaṅka · 84,000 · Asurakumāra and RākṣasaAb-bahula · 80,000 · the first hells, in 13 storeys7,72,00,000 mansions of the Bhavanavāsīghanodadhi · dense water · 20,000ghanavāta · dense wind · 20,000tanuvāta · thin wind · 20,000you are heretrasanāḍī · 1 rajjuThe seven earths, in sectioneach earth broader than the one above — Tattvārtha 3.1drawn at equal height; the true thickness is printed on eachthe gaps between them are asaṃkhyāta and are not drawn to any scale84,00,000hells · 49 storeys
The seven earths, in section — Vālukāprabhā highlighted

Measurements and counts

Position3rd earth down
Proper nameMeghā
Thickness1,28,000 yojana
Hells in it15,00,000
Storeys9
Shortest life3 sāgaropama
Longest life7 sāgaropama
Leśyākāpota shading to nīla

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समयं गोयम! मा पमायए

Do not be heedless, Gautama, for even a single samaya.

Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10