underwater hell or otherworld

[Dipak Bhattacharya]

I faintly remember the story that I read many years ago. Sudahana was the king of the Paancaalas at Hastinaapura where settlement dates back to the eleventh century BCE according to Lal. In any case growth of setlements around 1000BCE does not speak for possible state-tribe inter-action in the post-Buddha age around Hastinapura. Moreover the name of the city remembers the Nagas. The kernel of the story must be pretty old. There are other aspects of the story that require spade work.
DB

--- On Fri, 11/12/09, Dipak Bhattacharya <dbhattacharya2004 at YAHOO.CO.IN> wrote:


From: Dipak Bhattacharya <dbhattacharya2004 at YAHOO.CO.IN>
Subject: Re: underwater hell or otherworld
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Date: Friday, 11 December, 2009, 9:12 AM



--- On Fri, 11/12/09, JKirkpatrick <jkirk at SPRO.NET> wrote:


From: JKirkpatrick <jkirk at SPRO.NET>
Subject: Re: underwater hell or otherworld
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Date: Friday, 11 December, 2009, 2:42 AM



The same can be said of the Naga world under a lake in the Story of Prince Sudhana
(Tatelman, _Heavenly Exploits--from the Divyavadana_), where a young Naga Prince, Janmachitra, resides, who's responsible for the crop fertility/wealth of the Good King's kingdom. Like good Nagas, be causes rain to fall.  The Naga Prince figures out that a snake charmer hired by the Evil King will capture him by magic spells, and arranges with a hunter to kill the snake charmer, etc. See, pp.225 ff. for the whole story. Subsequently the hunter is invited to the underlake Naga kingdom palace and given plentiful riches (Nagas also control wealth, especially jewels, as I recall), on more than one occasion.
The underwater lake and river kingdoms of Nagas, not just in oceans, figure in a lot of Indian folklore. 

Best wishes
Joanna Kirkpatrick
=================


On Behalf Of james mallinson
Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2009 2:50 AM


Dear Jonathan,

To add to Adheesh's note: Bṛhatkathāślokasaṃgraha 5.115-137 tells the story of Udayana's visit to the underwater city of Bhogavatī, which is populated by Nāgas from whom he obtains Ghoṣavatī, a magical vīṇā. Bhogavatī is a paradise, not a hell.

Yours, with best wishes,

Jim



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