A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1164

c5.1164

MATANGA. ‘An elephant.’ A man who was brought up as a Brāhman but was the son of a Chandāla. His story, as told in the Mahā-bhārata, relates that he was mercilessly goading an ass’s foal which he was driving. The mother ass, seeing this, tells her foal that she could expect no better, for her driver was no Brāhman but a Chandāla. Matanga, addressing the ass as “most intelligent,” begged to know how this was, and was informed that his mother when intoxicated had received the embraces of a low-born barber, and that he, the offspring, was a Chandāla and no Brāhman. In order to obtain elevation to the position of a Brāhman, he went through such a course of austerities as alarmed the gods. Indra refused to admit him. He persevered again for a hundred years, but still Indra persistently refused such an impossible request, and advised him to seek some other boon. Nothing daunted, he went on a thousand years longer, with the same result. Though dejected he did not despair, but proceeded to balance himself on his great toe. He continued to do this for a hundred years, when he was reduced to mere skin and bone, and was on the point of falling. Indra went to support him, but inexorably refused his request, and, when further importuned, “gave him the power of moving about like a bird, and changing his shape at will, and of being honoured and renowned.” In the Rāmāyana, Rāma and Sītā visited the hermitage of Matanga near Rishya-mūka mountain.