Sins Leading To Hell In Hindu Dharma

1. Hell for worshipping idols made by Shudras

📖Skanda Purana 2.4.3.35-37
He who worships and bows to the idols installed by Sudras, goes to hell along with ten ancestors and ten descendants. If one touches the idol worshipped by a Shudra, he will burn (get burnt) his family up to the seventh generation. Hence one must enquire and worship an idol that has been installed by Brahmanas. Better than this is an idol made by Devas. It yields worldly pleasures and salvation.

2. Hell for causing the mixture of castes

📖Brahma Purana 106.121
There is a hell named Gudapaka. It is full of boiling eddies of treacle and molasses. A man responsible for the mixture in castes is thrown into it. He is burnt therein.

3. Hell for giving Shudra’s the leavings of a Shraddha

📖Manusmriti 3:249
He who, having eaten at a Shraddha, gives the leavings to a Shudra, this foolish man falls headlong into the Kalasutra hell.

4. Hell for censuring and rejecting the Scriptures

📖Skanda Purana 5.2.67.23-31
Even as the men were speaking thus, O lady of renown, a voice issued from the firmament as uttered by me in compassion: “Do not say anything out of the way. The immutable Shrutis should not be censured. The Puraṇas spoken by Brahmā, the creator of the worlds, cannot be otherwise. The atheists who censure the Puraṇas and Dharmaśāstras fall into the terrible hell and remain there till all the living beings are annihilated.

📖Padma Purana 4.1.8-13
‘For a man who would create an obstacle in the act of the narration of Viṣṇu’s account, there is no escape from hell for a hundred period of Manu. For those who, having heard the account (as narrated) in the Puraṇas, censure or scoff at it, always have the very afflicting hells on their hands (i.e. waiting for them). The sin earned in the previous existences (of him) who desires to listen to the account of Śrīkṛṣṇa, perishes just at that moment only. I do not know what (best) position the man who would devoutly listen to Śrīkṛṣṇa’s account will have on hearing it.

📖Brahma Purana 106.135
There is a hell named Atratiṣṭha. It contains putrescent urine and faeces. Those who censure Smṛtis and the Vedas fall into it with faces downwards.

📖Mahabharata 3.31
A rejector of proofs, a slanderer of the interpretation of the Vedic scriptures, a transgressor urged by lust and covetousness, that fool goes to hell.

📖Gita 16.23-24
He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination. One should therefore understand what is duty and what is not duty by the regulations of the scriptures. Knowing such rules and regulations, one should act so that he may gradually b hue elevated.

5. Hell for Buddhists and Jains

📖Devi Bhagavatam 12.9.91-100
Some of them began to mark on their bodies various heretical signs, e.g., Taptamūdrā, etc.; some became Kāpālikas; some became Kaulas; some Bauddhas and some Jainas. Many of them, though learned, became lewd and addicted to other’s wives and engaged themselves in vain and bad disputations. For these, they will have to go again surely to the Kumbhīpāka hell.

📖Devi Bhagavatam 12.9.63-81
O vile Brâhmanas! You will be always averse to see the festivals of S’iva, to worship S’iva, to Rudrâksa, to the Bel leaves, and to the holy Bhasma (ashes). You will be wholly indifferent to practise the right ways of living as presented in the Vedas and Smritis, to preserve your conduct good and to observe the path of knowledge to Advaita Jñânam, to practise restraint of senses and continence, to the daily practices of Sandhyâ Bandanam, to performing the Agnihotra ceremonies, to the study of the Vedas according to one’s own S’âkhâ or to the daily studies thereof as to teach those things or to give, as gifts, cows, etc., or to perform the S’râddhas of the fathers, etc., or to perform Krichchra Chândrâyana and other penances. O Vile Brâhmanas! As you are ready to do these mean things, you will have to suffer for this that you will desist from worshipping the Most Adorable S’rî Bhagavatî Devî and that you will worship the other Devas with faith and devotion and hold on your bodies S’amkha, Chakra and other signs. You will follow the Kâpâlikas, Bauddha S’âstras and other heretics. You will sell your father, mother, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters and even your wives too! You will sell the Vedas, Tîrthas, and your Dharma. You will not feel ashamed in any way to sell all these. You will certainly have faith in Kâpâlika and Bauddha opinions, Pâñcharâtras and Kâma S’âstras.

📖Agni Purana 16.1-6
I am describing the manifestation (of Viṣṇu) as Buddha, by reading and hearing which one gets wealth. Once in the battle between devas and asuras, devas were defeated by the daityas (demons, sons of Diti). They sought refuge in the lord saying, “Protect us! Protect us!”. He (Viṣṇu), who is of the form of illusory delusion became the son of Śuddhodana. He deluded those demons. Those, who had abandoned the path laid down in the Vedas, became the Bauddhas and from them others who had abandoned the Vedas. He then became the Arhat (Jaina). He then made others as Arhats. Thus the heretics came into being devoid of vedic dharmas. They did such a work deserving hell (as reward). They would receive even from the vile. All of them became mixed Dasyus and devoid of good conduct at the end of Kaliyuga. Of the Vājasaneyaka veda (Śuklayajurveda) only fifteen sections will be existing. Non-aryans in the form of kings would devour men who wear the costumes of righteousness and have a taste for unrighteous thing.

6. Hell for Atheists and Non-believers

📖Skanda Purana 5.3.227.1-4
Thus, succinctly and in accordance with their importance these Tīrthas have been recounted to you. O son of Pāṇḍu, no one is competent to enumerate in detail all the Tīrthas. This river Narmadā is sacred and pure. It is well-known in all the three worlds. She is the most excellent of all the rivers, and a favourite of Mahādeva. If anyone always remembers mentally and reflects on Narmaḍā, O king, he obtains quickly the excellent benefit of a hundred Cāṇḍrayaṇas. Persons who have no faith, those who are atheists fall into the terrible Naraka. So said Parameśvara.

📖Shrimad Bhagavatam 11.5.15
The conditioned souls become completely bound in affection to their own corpselike material bodies and their relatives and paraphernalia. In such a proud and foolish condition, the conditioned souls envy other living entities as well as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, who resides in the heart of all beings. Thus enviously offending others, the conditioned souls gradually fall down into hell.

📖Padma Purana 5.96.49b-76a
Those men who are averse to religion through their deeds, mind and words, and who are without (i.e. who do not have) devotion to Viṣṇu, go to hell. Those men who look upon Brahmā, Śaṅkara and Viṣṇu as different (from one another), and who are detached from knowledge about Viṣṇu, go to hell. That man who, through lust or delusion, gives up the act proper for his family or country, and would do something else, goes to hell. A man who worships what should not be worshipped, and does not worship what should be worshipped, and is disinterested in the knowledge about Viṣṇu, suffers in many hells.

7. Hell for marrying before your elder brother

📖Valmiki Ramayana 4.17.36
The regicide, the brahmincide, the slayer of the cow, the thief and the one who finds pleasure in the destruction of other beings, the unbeliever and the one who weds before his elder brother, all these enter hell.

8. Hell for not performing Shradhha

📖Brahmanda Purana 3.19.57b-58a
After hearing these rules and regulations regarding Śrāddha, if any man does not perform it, he is an atheist and he shall fall into the terrible hell enveloped in darkness.”

9. Hell for not worshipping the Shivling

📖Shiva Purana 1.19.26
If a brahmin does not worship the earthen phallic image he shall fall in the terrible hell with a terrible trident pierced through his body.

📖Devi Bhagavatam Purana 9.35.1-44
If any Brāhmaṇa does not worship with devotion the phallic emblem of Śiva, he goes to the dreadful Śūlaprota Kuṇḍa for that heinous sin. He remains there for one hundred years; then he becomes a quadruped animal for seven births and again he becomes born a Devala Brāhmin for seven births when he becomes freed.

10. Hell for plucking flowers from temple parks

📖Shiva Purana 5.10.19-20
If men, out of greed, pluck and sniff at flowers of the temple parks, or wear them on their heads, their heads are covered with iron spikes and their noses are filled with plenty of acid and other things.

References: 

1. Reference: Skanda Purana 2.4.3.35-37
2. Reference: Brahma Purana 106.121
3. Reference: Manusmriti 3:249
4. Reference: Skanda Purana 5.2.67.23-31
5. Reference: Padma Purana 4.1.8-13
6. Reference: Brahma Purana 106.135
7. Reference: Mahabharata 3.31
8. Reference: Gita 16.23-24
9. Reference: Devi Bhagavatam 12.9.91-100
10. Reference:: Devi Bhagavatam 12.9.63-81
11. Reference: Agni Purana 16.1-6
12. Reference: Skanda Purana 5.3.227.1-4
13. Reference: Shrimad Bhagavatam 11.5.15
14. Reference: Padma Purana 5.96.49b-76a
15. Reference: Valmiki Ramayana 4.17.36
16. Reference: Brahmanda Purana 3.19.57b-58a
17. Reference: Shiva Purana 1.19.26
18. Reference: Devi Bhagavatam Purana 9.35.1-44
19. Reference: Shiva Purana 5.10.19-20