Book Ii. Chapter Iii
*
"The Vishnu Purana", translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840],
p. 174
Chap. Iii.
Description of Bhrata-varsha: extent: chief mountains: nine divisions: principal rivers and mountains of Bhrata proper: principal nations: superiority over other Varshas, especially as the seat of religious acts. (Topographical lists.)
The country that lies north of the ocean, and south of the snowy mountains, is called Bhrata, for there dwelt the descendants of Bharata. It is nine thousand leagues in extent 1, and is the land of works, in consequence of which men go to heaven, or obtain emancipation.
The seven main chains of mountains in Bhrata are Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, uktimat, Riksha, Vindhya, and Priptra 2.
From this region heaven is obtained, or even, in some cases, liberation
p. 175
from existence; or men pass from hence into the condition of brutes, or fall into hell. Heaven, emancipation, a state in mid-air, or in the subterraneous realms, succeeds to existence here, and the world of acts is not the title of any other portion of the universe.
The Varsha of Bhrata is divided into nine portions, which I will name to you; they are Indra-dwpa, Kaserumat, Tmravarna, Gabhastimat, Nga-dwpa, Saumya, Gandharba, and Vruna; the last or ninth Dwpa is surrounded by the ocean, and is a thousand Yojanas from north to south 3.
On the east of Bhrata dwell the Kirtas (the barbarians); on the west, the Yavanas; in the centre reside Brahmans, Kshetriyas, Vaiyas, and dras, occupied in their respective duties of sacrifice, arms, trade, and service 4.
The atadru, Chandrabhg, and other rivers, flow from the foot of
p. 176
[paragraph continues] Himlaya: the Vedasmriti and others from the Parptra mountains: the Narmad and Suras from the Vindhya hills: the Tp, Payoshn, and Nirvindhy from the Riksha mountains; the Godver, Bhimarath, Krishnaven, and others, from the Sahya mountains: the Kritaml, Tmraparn, and others, from the Malaya hills: the Trism, Rishikuly, &c. from the Mahendra: and the Rishikuly, Kumr, and others, from the uktimat mountains. Of such as these, and of minor rivers, there is an infinite number; and many nations inhabit the countries on their borders 5.
The principal nations of Bhrata are the Kurus and Pnchlas, in the middle districts: the people of Kmarupa, in the east: the Pundras,
p. 177
[paragraph continues] Kalingas, Magadhas, and southern nations, are in the south: in the extreme west are the Saurshtras, ras, Bhras, Arbudas: the Krushas and Mlavas, dwelling along the Priptra mountains: the Sauvras, the Saindhavas, the Hnas, the Slwas, the people of kala, the Madras, the Rmas, the Ambashthas, and the Praskas, and others. These nations drink of the water of the rivers above enumerated, and inhabit their borders, happy and prosperous 6.
p. 178
In the Bhrata-varsha it is that the succession of four Yugas, or ages, the Krita, the Treta, the Dwpara, and Kali, takes place; that pious ascetics engage in rigorous penance; that devout men offer sacrifices; and that gifts are distributed; all for the sake of another world. In Jambu-dwpa, Vishnu, consisting of sacrifice, is worshipped, as the male of sacrificial rites, with sacrificial ceremonies: he is adored under other forms elsewhere. Bhrata is therefore the best of the divisions of Jambu-dwpa, because it is the land of works: the others are places of enjoyment alone. It is only after many thousand births, and the aggregation of much merit, that living beings are sometimes born in Bhrata as men. The gods themselves exclaim, "Happy are those who are born, even from the condition of gods, as men in Bhrata-varsha, as that is the way to the pleasures of Paradise, or the greater blessing of final liberation. Happy are they who, consigning all the unheeded rewards of their acts to the supreme and eternal Vishnu, obtain existence in that land of works, as their path to him. We know not, when the acts that have obtained us heaven shall have been fully recompensed 7, where we shall renew corporeal confinement; but we know that those men are fortunate who are born with perfect faculties 8 in Bhrata-varsha."
I have thus briefly described to you, Maitreya, the nine divisions of Jambu-dwpa, which is a hundred thousand Yojanas in extent, and which is encircled, as if by a bracelet, by the ocean of salt water, of similar dimensions.
Footnotes
174:1 As Bhrata-varsha means India, a nearer approach to the truth, with regard to its extent, might have been expected; and the Vyu has another measurement, which is not much above twice the actual extent, or 1000 Yojanas from Kumri (Comorin) to the source of the Ganges.
174:2 These are called the Kula parvatas, family mountains, or mountain ranges or systems. They are similarly enumerated in all the authorities, and their situation may be determined with some confidence by the rivers which flow from them. Mahendra is the chain of hills that extends from Orissa and the northern Circars to Gondwana, part of which, near Ganjam, is still called Mahindra Malei, or hills of Mahindra: Malaya is the southern portion of the western Ghats: uktimat is doubtful, for none of its streams can be identified with any certainty: Sahya is the northern portion of the western Ghauts, the mountains of the Konkan: Riksha is the mountains of Gondwana: Vindhya is the general name of the chain that stretches across central India, but it is here restricted to the eastern division; according to the Vyu it is the part south of the Narmada, or the Sathpura range: Priptra, as frequently written Priytra, is the northern and western portion of the Vindhya: the name, indeed, is still given to a range of mountains in Guzerat (see Col. Tod's map of Rajasthn), but the Chambal and other rivers of Mlwa, which are said to flow from the Priytra mountains, do not rise in that province. All these mountains therefore belong to one system, and are connected together. The classification seems to have been known to Ptolemy, as he specifies seven ranges of mountains, although his names do not correspond, with exception of the Vindus mons: of the others, the Adisathrus and Uxentus agree nearly in position with the Priytra and Riksha: the Apocopi, Sardonix, Bettigo, and Orudii must be left for consideration. The Bhgavata, Vyu, Padma, and Mrkandeya add a list of inferior mountains to these seven.
175:3 This last is similarly left without a name in all the works: it is the most southerly, that on the borders of the sea, and no doubt intends India proper. Wilford places Isere a division called Kumrik. No description is anywhere attempted of the other divisions. To these the Vyu adds six minor Dwpas, which are situated beyond sea, and are islands, Anga-dwpa, Yama-d., Matsya-d., Kumuda or Kua-d., Varha-d., and Sankha-d.; peopled for the most part by Mlechchhas, but who worship Hindu divinities. The Bhgavata and Padma name eight such islands, Swarnaprastha, Chandraukla, Avarttana, Rmanaka, Mandahra, Pnchajanya, Sinhal, and Lank. Col. Wilford has endeavoured to verify the first series of Upadwpas, making Varha Europe; Kua, Asia Minor, ankha, Africa; Malaya, Malacca: Yama is undetermined; and by Anga, he says, they understand China. How all this may be is more than doubtful, for in the three Purnas in which mention is made of them, very little more is said upon the subject.
175:4 By Kirtas, foresters and mountaineers are intended, the inhabitants to the present day of the mountains east of Hindustan. The Yavanas, on the west, may be either the Greeks of Bactria and the Punjab--to whom there can be little doubt the term was applied by the Hindus--or the Mohammedans, who succeeded them in a later period, and to whom it is now applied. The Vyu calls them both Mlechchhas, and also notices the admixture of barbarians with Hindus in India proper. The same passage, slightly varied, occurs in the Mahbhrata: it is said especially of the mountainous districts, and may allude therefore to the Gonds and Bhils of central India, as well as to the Mohammedans of the north-west. The specification implies that infidels and outcastes had not yet descended on the plains of Hindustan.
176:5 This is a very meagre list, compared with those given in other Purnas. That of the Vyu is translated by Col. Wilford, As. Res. vol. VIII; and much curious illustration of many of the places by the same writer occurs, As. Res. vol. XIV. The lists of the Mahbhrata, Bhgavata, and Padma are given without any arrangement: those of the Vyu, Matsya, Mrkandeya, and Krma are classed as in the text. Their lists are too long for insertion in this place. Of the rivers named in the text, most are capable of verification. The atadru, 'the hundred channelled'--the Zaradrus of Ptolemy, Hesidrus of Pliny--is the Setlej. The Chandrabhg, Sandabalis, or Acesines, is the Chinab. The Vedasmriti in the Vyu and Krma is classed with the Vetravat or Betwa, the Charmanwati or Chambal, and Sipr and Pr, rivers of Malwa, and may be the same with the Beos of the maps. The Narmad or Narbadda, the Namadus of Ptolemy, is well known; according to the Vyu it rises, not in the Vindhya, but in the Riksha mountains, taking its origin in fact in Gondwana. The Suras is uncertain. The Tp is the Tpti, rising also in Gondwana: the other two are not identified. The Godaveri preserves its name: in the other two we have the Beemah and the Krishna. For Kritaml the Krma reads Rituml, but neither is verified. The Tmraparn is in Tinivelly, and rises at the southern extremity of the western Ghats. The Rishikuly, that rises in the Mahendra mountain, is the Rasikulia or Raskoila, which flows into the sea near Ganjam. The Trism is undetermined. The text assigns another Rishikuly to the uktimat mountains, but in all the other authorities the word is Rishka. The Kumr might suggest some connexion with Cape Comorin, but that the Malaya mountains seem to extend to the extreme south. A Rishikuly river is mentioned (Vana P. v. 3026) as a Trtha in the Mahbhrata, in connexion apparently with the hermitage of Vaishtha, which in another passage (v. 4096) is said to be on mount Arbuda or Abu. In that case, and if the reading of the text be admitted for the name of the river, the uktimat range would be the mountains of Guzerat; but this is doubtful.
177:6 The list of nations is as scanty as that of the rivers: it is, however, omitted altogether in the Bhgavata. The Padma has a long catalogue, but without arrangement; so has the Mahbhrata. The lists of the Vyu, Matsya, and Mrkandeya class the nations as central, northern, eastern, southern, and western. The names are much the same in all, and are given in the 8th vol. of the As. Res. from the Brahmnda, or, for it is the same account, the Vyu. The Mrkandeya has a second classification, and, comparing Bhrata-varsha to a tortoise, with its head to the east, enumerates the countries in the head, tail, flanks, and feet of the animal. It will be sufficient here to attempt an identification of the names in the text, but some further illustration is offered at the end of the chapter. The Kurus are the people of Kurukshetra, or the upper part of the Doab, about Delhi. The Pnchlas, it appears from the Mahbhrata, occupied the lower part of the Doab, extending across the Jumna to the Chambal. Kullka Bhatta, in his commentary on Manu, II. 59, places them at Kanoj. Kmarupa is the north-eastern part of Bengal, and western portion of Asam. Pundra is Bengal proper, with part of south Behar and the Jungle Mahals. Kalinga is the sea-coast west of the mouths of the Ganges, with the upper part of the Coromandel coast. Magadh is Behar. The Saurshtras are the people of Surat, the Surastrene of Ptolemy. The ras and Bhras, in the same direction, may be the Suri and Phauni or Phryni of Strabo. The Arbudas must be the people about mount Abu, or the natives of Mewar. The Krushas and Mlavas are of course the people of Malwa. The Sauvras and Saindhavas are usually conjoined as the Sindhu-Sauvras, and must be the nations of Sindh and western Rajputna. By the Minas we are to understand the white Huns or Indo-Scythians, who were established in the Punjab and along the Indus at the commencement of our era, as we know from Arrian, Strabo, and Ptolemy, confirmed by recent discoveries of their coins, The lwas or, as also read, lyas are placed by the Vyu and Matsya amongst the central nations, and seem to have occupied part of Rjasthan, a lwa Rja being elsewhere described as engaging in hostilities with the people of Dwarak in Guzerat. kala, as I have elsewhere noticed, is a city in the Punjab (As. Res. Xv. 108), the Sagala of Ptolemy (ibid. 107); the Mahbhrata makes it the capital of the Madras, the Mardi of the ancients; but they are separately named in the text, and were situated something more to the south-east. p. 178 The Rmas and Ambashthas are not named in the other Purnas, but the latter are amongst the western, or more properly north-western nations subjugated by Nakula, in his Dig-vijaya. Mahbh. Sabh P. Ambas and Ambashthas are included in the list extracted by Col. Wilford from the Varha Sanhit, and the latter are supposed by him to be the Ambast of Arrian. The Praskas carry us into Persia, or that part of it adjoining to the Indus. As far as the enumeration of the text extends, it seems applicable to the political and geographical divisions of India about the era of Christianity.
178:7 Enjoyment in Swarga, like punishment in Naraka, is only for a certain period, according to the merit or demerit of the individual. When the account is balanced, the man is born again amongst mankind.
178:8 A crippled or mutilated person, or one whose organs are defective, cannot at once obtain liberation; his merits must first secure his being born again perfect and entire.
"The Vishnu Purana", translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840],
p. 174
Chap. Iii.
Description of Bhrata-varsha: extent: chief mountains: nine divisions: principal rivers and mountains of Bhrata proper: principal nations: superiority over other Varshas, especially as the seat of religious acts. (Topographical lists.)
The country that lies north of the ocean, and south of the snowy mountains, is called Bhrata, for there dwelt the descendants of Bharata. It is nine thousand leagues in extent 1, and is the land of works, in consequence of which men go to heaven, or obtain emancipation.
The seven main chains of mountains in Bhrata are Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, uktimat, Riksha, Vindhya, and Priptra 2.
From this region heaven is obtained, or even, in some cases, liberation
p. 175
from existence; or men pass from hence into the condition of brutes, or fall into hell. Heaven, emancipation, a state in mid-air, or in the subterraneous realms, succeeds to existence here, and the world of acts is not the title of any other portion of the universe.
The Varsha of Bhrata is divided into nine portions, which I will name to you; they are Indra-dwpa, Kaserumat, Tmravarna, Gabhastimat, Nga-dwpa, Saumya, Gandharba, and Vruna; the last or ninth Dwpa is surrounded by the ocean, and is a thousand Yojanas from north to south 3.
On the east of Bhrata dwell the Kirtas (the barbarians); on the west, the Yavanas; in the centre reside Brahmans, Kshetriyas, Vaiyas, and dras, occupied in their respective duties of sacrifice, arms, trade, and service 4.
The atadru, Chandrabhg, and other rivers, flow from the foot of
p. 176
[paragraph continues] Himlaya: the Vedasmriti and others from the Parptra mountains: the Narmad and Suras from the Vindhya hills: the Tp, Payoshn, and Nirvindhy from the Riksha mountains; the Godver, Bhimarath, Krishnaven, and others, from the Sahya mountains: the Kritaml, Tmraparn, and others, from the Malaya hills: the Trism, Rishikuly, &c. from the Mahendra: and the Rishikuly, Kumr, and others, from the uktimat mountains. Of such as these, and of minor rivers, there is an infinite number; and many nations inhabit the countries on their borders 5.
The principal nations of Bhrata are the Kurus and Pnchlas, in the middle districts: the people of Kmarupa, in the east: the Pundras,
p. 177
[paragraph continues] Kalingas, Magadhas, and southern nations, are in the south: in the extreme west are the Saurshtras, ras, Bhras, Arbudas: the Krushas and Mlavas, dwelling along the Priptra mountains: the Sauvras, the Saindhavas, the Hnas, the Slwas, the people of kala, the Madras, the Rmas, the Ambashthas, and the Praskas, and others. These nations drink of the water of the rivers above enumerated, and inhabit their borders, happy and prosperous 6.
p. 178
In the Bhrata-varsha it is that the succession of four Yugas, or ages, the Krita, the Treta, the Dwpara, and Kali, takes place; that pious ascetics engage in rigorous penance; that devout men offer sacrifices; and that gifts are distributed; all for the sake of another world. In Jambu-dwpa, Vishnu, consisting of sacrifice, is worshipped, as the male of sacrificial rites, with sacrificial ceremonies: he is adored under other forms elsewhere. Bhrata is therefore the best of the divisions of Jambu-dwpa, because it is the land of works: the others are places of enjoyment alone. It is only after many thousand births, and the aggregation of much merit, that living beings are sometimes born in Bhrata as men. The gods themselves exclaim, "Happy are those who are born, even from the condition of gods, as men in Bhrata-varsha, as that is the way to the pleasures of Paradise, or the greater blessing of final liberation. Happy are they who, consigning all the unheeded rewards of their acts to the supreme and eternal Vishnu, obtain existence in that land of works, as their path to him. We know not, when the acts that have obtained us heaven shall have been fully recompensed 7, where we shall renew corporeal confinement; but we know that those men are fortunate who are born with perfect faculties 8 in Bhrata-varsha."
I have thus briefly described to you, Maitreya, the nine divisions of Jambu-dwpa, which is a hundred thousand Yojanas in extent, and which is encircled, as if by a bracelet, by the ocean of salt water, of similar dimensions.
Footnotes
174:1 As Bhrata-varsha means India, a nearer approach to the truth, with regard to its extent, might have been expected; and the Vyu has another measurement, which is not much above twice the actual extent, or 1000 Yojanas from Kumri (Comorin) to the source of the Ganges.
174:2 These are called the Kula parvatas, family mountains, or mountain ranges or systems. They are similarly enumerated in all the authorities, and their situation may be determined with some confidence by the rivers which flow from them. Mahendra is the chain of hills that extends from Orissa and the northern Circars to Gondwana, part of which, near Ganjam, is still called Mahindra Malei, or hills of Mahindra: Malaya is the southern portion of the western Ghats: uktimat is doubtful, for none of its streams can be identified with any certainty: Sahya is the northern portion of the western Ghauts, the mountains of the Konkan: Riksha is the mountains of Gondwana: Vindhya is the general name of the chain that stretches across central India, but it is here restricted to the eastern division; according to the Vyu it is the part south of the Narmada, or the Sathpura range: Priptra, as frequently written Priytra, is the northern and western portion of the Vindhya: the name, indeed, is still given to a range of mountains in Guzerat (see Col. Tod's map of Rajasthn), but the Chambal and other rivers of Mlwa, which are said to flow from the Priytra mountains, do not rise in that province. All these mountains therefore belong to one system, and are connected together. The classification seems to have been known to Ptolemy, as he specifies seven ranges of mountains, although his names do not correspond, with exception of the Vindus mons: of the others, the Adisathrus and Uxentus agree nearly in position with the Priytra and Riksha: the Apocopi, Sardonix, Bettigo, and Orudii must be left for consideration. The Bhgavata, Vyu, Padma, and Mrkandeya add a list of inferior mountains to these seven.
175:3 This last is similarly left without a name in all the works: it is the most southerly, that on the borders of the sea, and no doubt intends India proper. Wilford places Isere a division called Kumrik. No description is anywhere attempted of the other divisions. To these the Vyu adds six minor Dwpas, which are situated beyond sea, and are islands, Anga-dwpa, Yama-d., Matsya-d., Kumuda or Kua-d., Varha-d., and Sankha-d.; peopled for the most part by Mlechchhas, but who worship Hindu divinities. The Bhgavata and Padma name eight such islands, Swarnaprastha, Chandraukla, Avarttana, Rmanaka, Mandahra, Pnchajanya, Sinhal, and Lank. Col. Wilford has endeavoured to verify the first series of Upadwpas, making Varha Europe; Kua, Asia Minor, ankha, Africa; Malaya, Malacca: Yama is undetermined; and by Anga, he says, they understand China. How all this may be is more than doubtful, for in the three Purnas in which mention is made of them, very little more is said upon the subject.
175:4 By Kirtas, foresters and mountaineers are intended, the inhabitants to the present day of the mountains east of Hindustan. The Yavanas, on the west, may be either the Greeks of Bactria and the Punjab--to whom there can be little doubt the term was applied by the Hindus--or the Mohammedans, who succeeded them in a later period, and to whom it is now applied. The Vyu calls them both Mlechchhas, and also notices the admixture of barbarians with Hindus in India proper. The same passage, slightly varied, occurs in the Mahbhrata: it is said especially of the mountainous districts, and may allude therefore to the Gonds and Bhils of central India, as well as to the Mohammedans of the north-west. The specification implies that infidels and outcastes had not yet descended on the plains of Hindustan.
176:5 This is a very meagre list, compared with those given in other Purnas. That of the Vyu is translated by Col. Wilford, As. Res. vol. VIII; and much curious illustration of many of the places by the same writer occurs, As. Res. vol. XIV. The lists of the Mahbhrata, Bhgavata, and Padma are given without any arrangement: those of the Vyu, Matsya, Mrkandeya, and Krma are classed as in the text. Their lists are too long for insertion in this place. Of the rivers named in the text, most are capable of verification. The atadru, 'the hundred channelled'--the Zaradrus of Ptolemy, Hesidrus of Pliny--is the Setlej. The Chandrabhg, Sandabalis, or Acesines, is the Chinab. The Vedasmriti in the Vyu and Krma is classed with the Vetravat or Betwa, the Charmanwati or Chambal, and Sipr and Pr, rivers of Malwa, and may be the same with the Beos of the maps. The Narmad or Narbadda, the Namadus of Ptolemy, is well known; according to the Vyu it rises, not in the Vindhya, but in the Riksha mountains, taking its origin in fact in Gondwana. The Suras is uncertain. The Tp is the Tpti, rising also in Gondwana: the other two are not identified. The Godaveri preserves its name: in the other two we have the Beemah and the Krishna. For Kritaml the Krma reads Rituml, but neither is verified. The Tmraparn is in Tinivelly, and rises at the southern extremity of the western Ghats. The Rishikuly, that rises in the Mahendra mountain, is the Rasikulia or Raskoila, which flows into the sea near Ganjam. The Trism is undetermined. The text assigns another Rishikuly to the uktimat mountains, but in all the other authorities the word is Rishka. The Kumr might suggest some connexion with Cape Comorin, but that the Malaya mountains seem to extend to the extreme south. A Rishikuly river is mentioned (Vana P. v. 3026) as a Trtha in the Mahbhrata, in connexion apparently with the hermitage of Vaishtha, which in another passage (v. 4096) is said to be on mount Arbuda or Abu. In that case, and if the reading of the text be admitted for the name of the river, the uktimat range would be the mountains of Guzerat; but this is doubtful.
177:6 The list of nations is as scanty as that of the rivers: it is, however, omitted altogether in the Bhgavata. The Padma has a long catalogue, but without arrangement; so has the Mahbhrata. The lists of the Vyu, Matsya, and Mrkandeya class the nations as central, northern, eastern, southern, and western. The names are much the same in all, and are given in the 8th vol. of the As. Res. from the Brahmnda, or, for it is the same account, the Vyu. The Mrkandeya has a second classification, and, comparing Bhrata-varsha to a tortoise, with its head to the east, enumerates the countries in the head, tail, flanks, and feet of the animal. It will be sufficient here to attempt an identification of the names in the text, but some further illustration is offered at the end of the chapter. The Kurus are the people of Kurukshetra, or the upper part of the Doab, about Delhi. The Pnchlas, it appears from the Mahbhrata, occupied the lower part of the Doab, extending across the Jumna to the Chambal. Kullka Bhatta, in his commentary on Manu, II. 59, places them at Kanoj. Kmarupa is the north-eastern part of Bengal, and western portion of Asam. Pundra is Bengal proper, with part of south Behar and the Jungle Mahals. Kalinga is the sea-coast west of the mouths of the Ganges, with the upper part of the Coromandel coast. Magadh is Behar. The Saurshtras are the people of Surat, the Surastrene of Ptolemy. The ras and Bhras, in the same direction, may be the Suri and Phauni or Phryni of Strabo. The Arbudas must be the people about mount Abu, or the natives of Mewar. The Krushas and Mlavas are of course the people of Malwa. The Sauvras and Saindhavas are usually conjoined as the Sindhu-Sauvras, and must be the nations of Sindh and western Rajputna. By the Minas we are to understand the white Huns or Indo-Scythians, who were established in the Punjab and along the Indus at the commencement of our era, as we know from Arrian, Strabo, and Ptolemy, confirmed by recent discoveries of their coins, The lwas or, as also read, lyas are placed by the Vyu and Matsya amongst the central nations, and seem to have occupied part of Rjasthan, a lwa Rja being elsewhere described as engaging in hostilities with the people of Dwarak in Guzerat. kala, as I have elsewhere noticed, is a city in the Punjab (As. Res. Xv. 108), the Sagala of Ptolemy (ibid. 107); the Mahbhrata makes it the capital of the Madras, the Mardi of the ancients; but they are separately named in the text, and were situated something more to the south-east. p. 178 The Rmas and Ambashthas are not named in the other Purnas, but the latter are amongst the western, or more properly north-western nations subjugated by Nakula, in his Dig-vijaya. Mahbh. Sabh P. Ambas and Ambashthas are included in the list extracted by Col. Wilford from the Varha Sanhit, and the latter are supposed by him to be the Ambast of Arrian. The Praskas carry us into Persia, or that part of it adjoining to the Indus. As far as the enumeration of the text extends, it seems applicable to the political and geographical divisions of India about the era of Christianity.
178:7 Enjoyment in Swarga, like punishment in Naraka, is only for a certain period, according to the merit or demerit of the individual. When the account is balanced, the man is born again amongst mankind.
178:8 A crippled or mutilated person, or one whose organs are defective, cannot at once obtain liberation; his merits must first secure his being born again perfect and entire.
