There are many different concept of Buddhist hell in the sources depending on the different traditions of Buddhism in the various place like Tibet or china for example. Some tradition say that there are every type of hell with every kind in structure and can even exist everywhere so there exist a physical type of hell or metaphysical one. The general idea is that there exist a hell just made for every individuals based on the bad karma, which mean bad deeds, that they accumulated in their life. The most concept of Naraka appeared first in the vedic literature, so from the Hinduism, although in the most ancient vedic text, the Rigveda, there weren’t any reference to the Naraka. It said that there was an abyss or pit under the earth, cold and dark, devoid of any light or heat or god or human and where was situated the corpse of the snake Vritra, slain by Indra and Yama was considered a positive god and there were also some reference to the Yama’s heaven.

Only in the successive vedic texts that the concept of Naraka, interpreted as the place of suffering and torture for the souls, start to appear although the sources don’t agree on the number of the hell. For example for in the Markandeya purana there were eight, while in the skandapurana there are thirteen hell. In general the more older a sources is then lower are the number of the Naraka. The role of Yama, now son of Surya, change to the king of underworld and judge of the soul based on their karma. It’s important to note that the soul that are sent to hell won’t stay there for eternity like in the christian traditions, but only for a period of time, which usually is quite long, until they purified from their bad karma and get reincarnated.

In Buddhism the Naraka as said before varied from place to place: in the Tibetan Buddhism it is one of the realm described in the wheel of existence, the physical form of the samsara, together with the realm of deva, pretas (ghost), animal. Some traditions add the realm of asuras in the wheel. After the individual is dead he got reincarnated in one of these six realm based on the karma one have accumulated in their life. The Chinese Naraka is like thought as a prison and modeled after the imperial bureaucracy and administration with Yama, now Yin, as the head helped by an infernal staff. The same Yama may vary to to tradition in tradition: in japan and Korea he appeared respectively as king Yeonma and King Enma or in some Tibetan traditions he is identified by Shinge, the guardian of the of spiritual practices, and most of time followed by a Yamataka. In some text, like the prakasa-sasana sutra, Yama is seen as an identity of two beings: a brother, who rule the hell for men, and a sister who rule the hell for women. In most of these tradition Yama is the judge of the death by seeing their karma and in many tradition he also longed to be reincarnated as a human being to understand the dharma.

Some Buddhist text said that there are seven or eight hell, with sides room or adding some subsidiary hell. Northern Buddhism usually there are added eight colds hell, where there is unbearable cold, making in total sixteen hell. Some Buddhism text, like the mayana and the theravada, argues that hell can also exist in the mind so it can be see as a state of mind. If the Naraka is a mental then its possible to reach the nirvana even in the same lifetime in which the hell is experienced.

There isn’t any notably influence from the west and there seem to more of brahmanical or hinduism and even jainism influence, but even then all these tradition borrow the terms and concept of each others.