The Jaina declare that they do not worship their gods, but that they regard them as instruments for working out the fruits of karma. They say also that their gods differ from the members of the Hindu pantheon in being graded: indeed they might almost be considered as having caste amongst themselves. In spite of being gods, they are inferior to men, since before they can attain mokṣa they must be born again as human beings; yet, if they have accumulated good karma in previous births, they may now be enjoying greater bliss than men.
Gods in
Hell.The lowest gods are in Hell, where their work is to torment jīva; these deities are divided into fifteen classes according to their different functions. Amongst them are the Amba, whose special task it is to destroy the nerves of their victims (as a mango is pinched and crushed in a man's hand to soften it, so do they wreck the nerves of the jīva they torture); the Ambarasa, who separate bones and flesh; the Śāma, who beat and belabour men; the Sabala, who tear the flesh; the Rudra, engaged in striking men with spears; the Mahārudra, occupied in chopping flesh into mince-meat; the Kāla, who are roasting the flesh of their victims; the Mahākāla, who are tearing it with pincers; the Asipata, engaged in cutting their victims with swords; the Dhanu, who are shooting them with arrows; the Kumbha, who are indulging in the pastime, so often employed in Indian native states, of torturing with chillies; the Vālu, who steep men in hot sand; the Vetaraṇī, who like devilish dhobīs dash their victims against stones in streams of boiling water; the Kharasvara, who force men to sit on thorny trees; and last in the fearsome list, the Mahāghoṣa, who shut men up in black holes.
