Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.2092

c8.2092

3) *Sutala*. This is the abode of Mahābali. Here lives Mahābali meditating on Mahāviṣṇu with more glory and grandeur than Indra. To please Indra, Mahāviṣṇu once went to Mahābali on earth and by deceit took all his possessions and binding him with Varuṇapāśa pushed him to Sutala through a hole made on earth. Later Mahāviṣṇu felt he did a wrong in thus sending away Mahābali from earth by deceit and to remedy the sin committed he even now acts as a gatekeeper to Mahābali in Sutala. Once Rāvaṇa went to Sutala to attack Mahābali and then Mahāviṣṇu keeping watch over the palace-gate in the form of Vāmana gave Rāvaṇa a kick and sent him back.