[Painting from a Jain 'Heaven and Hell' series.

India, Gujarat (?), late eighteenth century]. . Single leaf, watercolour on fibrous paper, depicting a scene from the Jain vision of hell, circa 115 x 265 mm; image framed within contemporary red painted border, reverse blank, some light finger soiling and rubbing, overall bright and attractive example; floated in modern card mount.
Hell and purgatory in Jainism, called Naraka, are realms of cosmology that are characterised my great suffering. There are seven realms of this universe, that are all situated in the 'lower levels' (adho lok), and they are all inhabited by various types of hellish beings. These beings contribute to the various types of suffering one might endure in a vision of Jain hell, including bodily pain, soul colouring (as seen by the dark figures depicted thus), physical transformation and pain inflicted on one other and torture inflicted by mansion-dwelling demi-gods and animals (such as the demons, snakes and scorpions depicted in these illustrations).

Illustrations such as these would have been included with Jain manuscripts and their purpose would have been to warn the readers of evil and the effects of bad Karma on the eternal soul.