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A Niraya. It resembled a city with four gates and a wall.
Mittavindaka, arriving at Ussaka in his
wanderings, saw there a man supporting a wheel as sharp as a razor, which to
Mittavindaka appeared like a lotus-flower. Mittavindaka took it from him, and
realising then what it was, tried to escape, but was unsuccessful. This was the
suffering undergone by those who had smitten their mothers.
Sakka, during a visit to Ussaka, saw Mittavindaka,
but could do nothing for him (J.iv.3f; iii.206f).
Ussada was considered a place of great suffering (E.g., J. iv.403), and also a
place where those who, having promised a gift fail to give it, are born
(J.iv.405). Once the Bodhisatta was born in Ussada, for cruelty during his reign
as king of Benares, and he suffered for eighty thousand years (J.vi.2). Beings
born there have their tongues pierced with glowing hooks and are dragged about
on a floor of heated metal (J.vi.112).
In the scholiast to the Matakabhatta
Jātaka (J.i.168) reference is made to sixteen Ussada-nirayā.
Revatī was once cast into Ussada-niraya.
VvA.223.

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