An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, with Short Explanations and a Concordance to the Bombay and Calcutta Editions and P. C. Roy's Translation c5.s6.129.1

c5.s6.129.1

[Indralokābhigamanaparvan] ("the section relating to Arjuna's journey to the world of Indra," the 34th of the minor parvans of Mbh.). § 335: After the Lokapālas had gone away, Arjuna began to think of the chariot of Indra, which, guided by Mātali, came down full of swords, missiles, maces, thunderbolts, etc. (description), and great Nāgas with fiery mouths, and drawn by 10,000 horses of golden hue, and with the flagstaff Vaijayanta (described). Mātali, descending, invited him to ascend the chariot, as Indra waited to behold him, surrounded by rshis, Gandharvas, and Apsarases. As that chariot cannot be obtained even by hundreds of rājasūyas and horse-sacrifices, and as even gods and Dānavas are not competent to ride in it, and as he that has no ascetic merit is not competent even to see or touch it, Arjuna first let Mātali ascend it and control the horses. Then he purified himself in the Gangā, bated his prayers (japyam), gratified the Pitrs, and bade farewell to the Mandara mountain (b). Then he ascended, in the chariot, through the sky and beheld thousands of vimānas of extraordinary beauty; there was no sun or moon or fire, but they blazed in light of their own, generated by virtue and ascetic merit; and the stars, which from earth look small in consequence of their distance, but are very large, were seen by him in their places; and rājarshis who had attained siddhi (siddhāh), and heroes fallen in battle, and those that had obtained heaven by tapas;