The Vishnu Purana names seven stacked realms, Atala, Vitala, Nitala, Garbhastimat, Mahatala, Sutala, Patala, seventy thousand yojanas below the surface; the Bhagavata Purana calls them bila-svargas, subterranean heavens, each ten thousand yojanas deep, with named rulers from the sorcerer-architect Maya to the pious king Bali, whose palace Vishnu himself guards. The lowest is Naga-loka, ruled by Vasuki, where thousand-hooded serpents wear gems whose light replaces the sun. The whole stack rests on Shesha's hoods.
Narada visits and reports Patala more beautiful than Svarga: jeweled palaces, groves, music, gold dust soil, inhabitants free of old age and illness. Atala offers travelers an intoxicating cannabis drink; Vitala mints Hataka gold from a river. Below Patala, only then, lies Naraka, the actual hell. The underworld as resort, the surface as the rough neighborhood: the inversion is systematic, not incidental.
The claim: Patala's opulence is a moral trapdoor, the texts place demons and serpent-people in luxury precisely to decouple wealth from virtue: the asuras are mighty and cruel and richer than gods, so prosperity cannot be evidence of righteousness, a theology built to survive unjust surfaces. Verdict: supported by the texts' own moral assignments, Bali's piety earns the finest realm while cruel daityas get luxury too. The Puranas mapped the underworld as the place where treasure and merit part company. The modern hollow earth dreams of a paradise below; Patala already knew better.
What does it mean when the below outshines the above?