It is my general contention that Hindu tellings of "Patala," "The Underworld," is an ancient rendering of the continents currently called "the Americas," the "underside" of the world if your perspective is Eurasia or Africa, sorta like how Australia is nowadays called the "Land Down Under."
Naraka Loka is mentioned in Vedic texts, and it is believed that there are 28 different types of hell within this plane. The Bhagavata Purana describes Naraka Loka as residing at the bottom of the universe, below earth, but above Patala, otherwise known as the 'Seven Realms of the Underworld.'[i]
Thus Naraka Loka "Hell" is underground, i.e., the cavernous "Hell," but Patala is under the Earth, a place where the sun doth also shine.
In the following I provide a snippet of clues taken from my book, To Be or Not To Be...brahman or Abrahman / The World Turned Upside-Down, that the seven realms of Patala (Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talātala, Mahātala, Rasātala and Patala) may have directly corresponded to the historical geographic distribution of peoples in the ancient Americas, North-to-South.
[i] “Naraka Loka,” Yogapedia, December 21, 2023,
https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/10469/naraka-loka#:~:text=The%20Bhagavata%20Purana%20describes%20Naraka,Seven%20Realms%20of%20the%20Underworld.
From To Be or Not To Be...brahman or Abrahman / The World Turned Upside-Down, Chapter 8, "Migrations to the East":
The form of
Shiva who reigns over and is worshipped in Patala and who resides in Vitala
is called Hāṭakeśvara, a name perhaps echoed be the placename Hatteras,
North Carolina. Hatteras was named after
the Hatterask tribe, one of the Croatoan tribes of the Outer
Banks. The Croatoan word for “God” is Kew’as. One of Shiva’s names in Tamil is kavAli
or kAvAli.[i]
Sanskrit “Hāṭakeśvara
is the Sanskrit name of a deity presiding over Pātāla…Hāṭakeśvara Name of a
form of Śiva…Hāṭakeśvara The name as the Lord enshrined in Vitala.”[ii] Hāṭakeśvara
also and specifically means “Lord of the Hataka people.”
A southeastern
tribe whose name is very close to Hāṭakeśvara is the “Atakapa-Ishak Nation”
of the southeastern United States. “Atakapa
people, also spelled Attakapa, Attakapas, or Attacapa, called themselves the Ishak,
pronounced ‘ee-SHAK,’ which meant “The People.’”[iii] The name Atakapa is purportedly
derived from the Choctaw word Hattak which means “person”
or “male person” and Choctaw “apa” which means “eat,” and thus this
appellation means “people-eater.” The Choctaw called the Ishak “Atakapa”
because of that tribe’s purported ritual cannibalism.[iv] If there was any verity to the etymology of this
Choctaw appellation applied to the Ishak people, bear in mind that some sects
of tantric Shivites practice ritual cannibalism to this day.
Choctaw hattak person
or male person
apa to eat
Sanskrit hATaka N. of a country and people MBh. ; a
partic. magical drink BhP. ; (%{I}) f. N. of a river in the lower world …
hATaka m.
sgl. & pl. N. of a country & its inhabitants[v]
[said to be north of the Himalayas—and perhaps so far north as “the
Underworld” realm Patala, beyond the North Pole, as the
establishment has recently acknowledged that some of the Hataka people did
venture across the ocean, likely via a coastal route to the Patala, “the
Underworld,” the Americas]
apyad to
eat off S3Br. xiv: Caus. %{-Adayati}, to give more (food) to eat[vi]
Hataka (Sanskrit:
हाटक, Hāṭaka) is an
ancient mythical region or country described in the Indian epic Mahabharata,
situated north of the Himalayas and inhabited by the Guhyakas, a class
of semi-divine beings akin to yakshas known for their supernatural powers and
guardianship of treasures.[vii]
Hatakaranda Odisha, India;
Hatakata Odisha, India; Hatakeswaram Temple, Andhra Pradesh, India
The Ghuyakas,
a people who inhabited Hataka, at the time of the Mahabharata touted to
be “north of the Himalayas,” may be echoed in a name of the Nivkh people of
Sakhalin Island, who are also known as Gilyak or Gilyaks. Some of the Nivkh/Gilyak people are
touted to be among the first people to migrate along the kelp highway to the
northwestern United States. Indeed, many
of the Native American peoples of the United States did likely cross
the ocean via seagoing canoes along the coastal route as well as
later via the land bridge, and also possibly earlier than both
via the transoceanic passage accomplished with ships upon the movement
of King Bali’s people to Sutala, the third land “down” of the seven lands of
Patala, i.e., somewhere in Mexico.
I certainly
don’t claim that the conventional theories about the peopling of “the Americas”
are false, I am merely contending that there were pre-Columbian passages by
ship across the Pacific that may have predated the northern island-hopping and
land bridge routes, transoceanic passages facilitated by ancient Tamil nautical
prowess and large ships, as evinced by the 50-100 meters deep sunken port of Poompuhar,
with submerged stone docks for berthing 70-80 large ships at once that would
have been above sea level about 15000 YBP and before.
One Choctaw
word for God or Lord is Chitokaka,[viii]
not too far a stretch from Hāṭakeśvara considering the way
pronunciations change from one people or place to another. The Choctaw name for their tribe is “Chahta,”
not unlikely from the Sanskrit “chaTA f. a mass, lump, assemblage,
number … a collection of rays, lustre.”[ix] One
of the two main clan groups of the Seminole tribe was called Hataka. The other was the Chiloki.
There were two
larger groups of clans called the "Hataka" and the "Chiloki"
[emphasis added]. Persons belonging to the first had responsibility for most
civic and religious functions, while members of the second presided over
military affairs.[x]
The
Hataka were obviously the Seminole high caste, corresponding to the
Hindu brahmins. The Chiloki
would then correspond to the Kshatriya caste of Hinduism, the warrior
caste.
The Chiloki
were probably in South Carolina, when visited by Spanish explorer Hernando de
Soto in 1540. At the time, they were much more primitive than other tribes. The
word “Chiloki” is actually a Totonac word from Mexico, which means
“primitive or barbarian.”[xi]
[emphases added]
Tamil ciluki quarrelsome woman; cilukiTu-tal 1. to
become disorderly, confused; 2. to quarrel; cilukkan troublesome or
quarrelsome man; cilukku quarrel, trouble; ciluku 1. trouble,
affliction; 2. perplexity; 3. quarrel; 4. hue and cry; 5. mischief; 6.
obstacle, impediment; 7. Failure[xii]
Chiloki is also the name of a
village in Uttar Pradesh, India.
Thus it seems likely enough that Vitala, the second land “down” (to the south) of the lands of Patala, would have been located in what is now the southern United States, with Atala likely towards the northern US into Canada. If the seven realms of Patala were indeed on the underside of the world (to Eurasia and Africa), lands now called “the Americas,” the next realm “down” from Vitala, Sutala, would be just to the north of Mayan lands and to the south of Vitala, i.e., somewhere in northern or central Mexico.
[i] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from
Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. “kavali,” accessed
September 26, 2026,
https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.
[ii] Wisdom Library Search the Database: Glossary, Wisdom
Library Peace-Love-Dharma, s.v. “Hatakeshvara,” accessed May 16, 2026,
https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/hatakeshvara.
[iii] “Atakapa Tribe,” Legends of America, accessed May 16,
2026, https://www.legendsofamerica.com/atakapa-tribe/.
[iv] “Atakapa,” Wikipedia, last edited February 17, 2026,
accessed May 17, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atakapa.
[v] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from
Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. prefix “hataka,” accessed
April 22, 2025,
https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.
[vi] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from
Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. “apyad,” accessed May 17,
2026,
https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.
[vii] “Hataka,” Grokipedia Vol. 2, accessed May 17, 2026,
https://grokipedia.com/page/hataka.
[viii] “Choctaw 2: Chapter Nine: Lesson 5,” Choctaw Nation
of Oklahoma, accessed July 5, 2026,
https://www.choctawnation.com/lessons/choctaw-2/chapter-9/lesson-5/.
[ix] Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from
Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'), s.v. “chata,” accessed April
22, 2025,
https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.
[x] “Seminole Nation Clans,” Seminole Nation, I. T.
'The
Land Between The Rivers', accessed May 17, 2026,
http://www.seminolenation-indianterritory.org/seminole_nation_clans.htm
[xi] “Native American History of Seminole County,
Georgia,” AccessGenealogy, accessed May 17, 2026,
https://accessgenealogy.com/georgia/native-american-history-of-seminole-county-georgia.htm#google_vignette.
[xii] Cologne
Digital Sanskrit Lexicon (from Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit-English Dictionary'),
s.v. prefix “cil,” accessed May 17, 2026,
https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/csl-santam/php/index.html.
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