Pali texts’ description of the ancient world scans a different time period for humans’ history which is not found in any other ancient texts. But academic scholarships do not believe in these texts because, according to some scholars, they are mostly unscientific in their contents. But in reality, the Buddhist texts are more dependable in certain aspects of the world history which is more accurate than any other texts. Classical and biblical’ scholarship’s total exclusion of Pali texts from their reference have made them poor and less truthful in their academic presentation of past events.
Description on the ancient volcano in Pali texts is mostly the same as in other texts. According to Supparaka Jataka(J.iv.130-40), Aggimala or Aggimali is a sea which stands like a blazing fire; the Jataka story says that this sea is filled with gold, and merchants crossed this sea to get gold. Name of Supparaka identifies it with an ancient port, and Ptolemy has clearly shown this place in his peripheral map of the ‘inhabited world’. Aggimali sea itself marks the settlements of the people of Aggi or Agni clan; according to Buddhist literature, Aggimukha is the name of a species of snake; bodies bitten by them grow hot (Vsm.368); Aggivessa or Agggivessana was one of the guards of the King Elleya; it is also name of a gotta; and also name of a clan. Here King Elleya is identified with El-country of Indian puranas(or Ayila, and Ola), and it is synonymous with Iliad of Homer. Accimukhi is mentioned as a Naga princess, and she was daughter of King Dhatarattha of Ajodhya. Unlike other ancient texts, Pali literature identifies kings of Ajodhya as belonging to Naga or the Serpent or to the Ahi clan. And their settlement is called Ahi-dipa, which it speaks is the old name of Kara-dipa. Indian puranas find Karadvip on the bank of the river Kara-Toya, again the same as Troy of Homer’s Iliad. Ahi-dipa, it says, is near the Naga or the Serpent Island as same as the Serpent Plain of the Holy Quran, and finds Ahicchata as a Naga King of this island.
Aggi Sutta preaches seven kinds of ‘fires’; and mention is being made on the Angara-pabbata, a blazing mountain of white hot coal; it was one of the tortures of the Mahaniraya.
Buddhist texts see Avici as one of the eight purgatories; it is ten thousand leagues in extent and forms part of the cakavala(cupola); The Milindapanha places it outside the earth. Fire of Avici destroys the eyes from a distant of one hundred leagues, the text says; it would destroy in a moment a rock as large as gabled house. But from the names of various Avici, it is seen that they are names of different places, which in other words, identify the seat of volcano nearer to them from different sides. The names, according to the Sutta Nipata, are: Abbuda, Nirabudda, Ababa, Ahaha, Atata, Kumuda, Sogandhika, Uppalaka, Pundarika, and Paduma. These places stand in an order near the ancient volcano site.
‘It is seen that that the word Avici occurs only once in the four Nikayas—namely in a passage in the Cakkavatti-Sihanada Sutta of the Digha Niakaya—but in this context there is no indication that it refers to a purgatory. The word is not found in the list of purgatories given in the Sutta Nipata and in the Samyutta…It is however found in a poem in Itivuttaka(No.89) which recurs both in the Vinaya and in the Dhammasangani, and there it is specifically called a niraya’.
But Avici is misunderstood when scholars see it as referring to growth of population in the Digha by later scholars who find it with, ‘nirantara purita’, that is ‘filled with fire always’. In the Visudhimagga the word Avici appears to be a synonym for jara(disintegration) and is used in connection with the disintegration of earth, water, mountain, sun, moon, etc. It is often referred to as the lowest point of the universe. The chief element here is ‘fire’ .
Various lists of Nirayas are found in the Jataka Commentaries, like: Sanjiva, Kalasutta, Sanghata, Jala-roruva, Dhuma-roruva, Mahavici, Tapana, Patapana; The Devaduta Sutta and the Majjhima Nikaya contain yet another list: Gutha, Kukkula, Simbalivana, Asipatavana, and Kharodaka-nadi; other names are also there like Khuradhara(J.v.269), Kakola(J.vi.247); Sataporisa(J.v.269); and Sattisula(J.v.143). As the volcano was emitting twice in a year, its impact was felt by the people of the entire ‘inhabited world’.
Buddhist literature speaks of Aggi-Bhagava, a deity identical with Agni of Indian puranas whose son is jataggi; and the other name of Agni is jataveda. In Bhuridatta Jataka the deity is called Aggi-deva. Pali texts mention Aknittha- deva as a class of devas or gods, and they are identical with Achaeans of Homeric epics. Bhagavata purana mentions Agnidhra as a king whose nine sons ruled nine kingdoms in Jambudvipa. Names of different Narkas (Pali nirayas) in this purana is indicative of places of tortures or the ‘Hells’, it cites names like Salamali, Tapta-mani, Tapta-surmi, Rouraba, and Kardan(Kukudvan of the Vayu purana), along with twenty-eight others. Salmali identifies Khandava, and ‘Tapta’ is synonymous with ‘Fire’. If total place-names are counted, it seems, they will be around forty, and this number is not a great number which felt the impact of the ancient volcano which is dead now.