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.s6.132

c5.s6.132

[Indra-Matanga-saṃvāda(h)] ("the conversation between Indra and Matanga"). § 735*b* (*Anuśāsanik.*): *Bhīṣma* said: Once a *brāhman* obtained a son named *Matanga*, who, though procreated by a person of a different order, had, however, the rites of infancy and youth performed according to the ordinances laid down for *brāhmans*. His father, desiring to perform a sacrifice, ordered him to collect the articles, and he set out riding in a car drawn by a young ass, that bore away the ear to its mother; *Matanga* repeatedly struck the animal with his goad on its nose; but the old she-ass consoled it, saying, "A *Cāṇḍāla* it is that is driving thee; there is no severity in a *brāhman*." Asked by *Matanga*, the she-ass revealed to him that his father was a *Śūdra* following the profession of a barber, who begat him upon a *brāhman* woman excited with desire; "thou art, therefore, a *Cāṇḍāla* by birth." *Matanga* returned home, told his father what he had heard, retired to the forest, and began to undergo the austerest penances in order to acquire the status of a *brāhman*, so that he scorched the very deities. Indra came and offered him boons, but the status of a *brāhman*, he said, could not be won by penances (XIII, 27). *Matanga* then stood for 100 years on one foot. *Indra* came once more and said: "From the order of brute life one attains to the state of humanity; if born as a human being, one is sure to take birth as a *Pukkaça* or a *Cāṇḍāla*; after 1,000 years one attains to the status of a *Śūdra*; then after 30,000 years that of a *Vaiśya*; after a period that is sixty times longer, that of a *kṣatriya*; after a period that is sixty times longer than this, to that of a fallen *brāhman*; after a period 200 times as long, to that of a *brāhman* living by the profession of arms; after a period 300 times as long, to that of a *brāhman* reciting the *Gāyatrī* and sacred *mantras*; after a period 400 times as long, to that of a *brāhman* conversant with the entire *Vedas* and the scriptures" (XIII, 28). *Matanga* then practised austerer penances, standing on one foot for 1,000 years in *yoga*-meditation. *Indra* once more came and said the same. *Matanga* then repaired to *Gayā*, and there passed 300 years on one foot in *yoga*, and was reduced to only skin and bones, and dropped down on the ground from sheer exhaustion. *Indra* came quickly; now *Matanga* accepted the boons that he should be celebrated as *caṇḍadeva*, and obtain the worship of all women, and his fame should become unrivalled in the three worlds (XII, 29).