Mātali

Mātali is the sārathi (charioteer) of Indra. He appears in the Purāṇas and in the Mahābhārata. In the Bhūmi Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Indra sends him as an envoy to bring King Yayāti to svarga after Yayāti’s kingdom had become like a Vaikuṇṭha on earth. In the Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata, he brings Arjuna to Indraloka for training in divine weapons. He also drives Arjuna against the Nivātakavacas, and in the Rāmopākhyāna he drives the chariot that Indra sends to Bhagavān Rāma for the last fight with Rāvaṇa.

He is known for his skill, his knowledge, and his full trustworthiness in the service of Indra and of the heroes of dharma whom Indra supports. Indra sends him when he wants a task done with full trust and dignity.

Mission to Yayāti

Yayāti had proclaimed Viṣṇu-bhakti (devotion to Bhagavān Viṣṇu) as the highest dharma. His kingdom became free of disease and death, the dūtas (messengers) of Yama were driven away, and the people stayed young. Yamadharmarāja told Indra of this change. Indra was uneasy that an earthly king had made a place like svarga through bhakti and not through yajña. He sent Mātali to bring Yayāti up to his realm with honour. Mātali came to the capital of Yayāti as the personal envoy of Indra and offered to take the king to svarga in Indra’s own vimāna (flying chariot) (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 64–71).

The dialogue

Yayāti did not accept the call at once. He held a long talk with Mātali on deep questions of dharma and the order of the worlds. Across several chapters they spoke of these things.

The make-up of the body. Mātali told of the elements of the body and how the frame is built from the five bhūtas (elements) and held up by prāṇa (life breath).

The cause of jarā (old age). Old age comes from the kāma-agni (fire of desire) that burns within the body and from the loss of śukra through maithuna. Left unchecked, the fire of desire eats up the strength of the body and brings on the slow decay that is jarā.

Death and the leaving of the ātmā. How death comes, how the prāṇas leave the body, and what decides the path of the ātmā after death.

Pāpa-karma and naraka. Mātali told in detail of particular acts of pāpa (sin) and the matching tortures of naraka, the stepped punishments that wait for those who break dharma in many kinds of wrong.

Śiva-dharma. The nature of the path of Bhagavān Śiva and its place in the order of the worlds.

The order of the lokas. The arrangement of the worlds from the human world upward through the many lokas to the highest, and what is needed for each (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 64–71).

Yayāti’s refusal

At the end of the long talk, Yayāti said no to the call to go up to svarga. His reason was that svarga is won and kept by stored puṇya (merit), so it is tied to conditions and to time. Through Viṣṇu-bhakti he had already made the conditions of svarga on earth. He meant to make this last, and not to seek a short stay in the realm of Indra. He told Mātali that he would make svarga here on earth and had no need to go elsewhere. Mātali went back to Indra and told him of the refusal (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 64–71).

Vāmana Purāṇa: birth from Śamīka

The Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa (Chapter 43) says that Mātali was born from the ṛṣi Śamīka, in the time of the events around the war between Andhaka and Bhagavān Śiva (Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 43).

Mahābhārata, Vana Parva: Arjuna’s journey to Indraloka

Arjuna had done tapas on the Himavān and had received the Pāśupatāstra from Bhagavān Śiva. The four lokapālas had given him their weapons. Indra then sent Mātali with his own divine chariot, bright as the sun, with the vaijayanī flag, drawn by the great Hari horses, to take Arjuna to Svarga. Mātali came to the Himālaya peak and greeted Arjuna with honour. He formally asked Arjuna to come up and carried him through the sky to Amarāvatī.

It was a great honour that the charioteer of Indra was sent in person to take a mortal warrior to svarga. Mātali drove Arjuna through the sky to Indraloka. There Arjuna spent five years in training with Indra and the other lokapālas, and he learned the arts from Citrasena (Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 41–43).

Mātali was also the charioteer of Arjuna when Arjuna went down to Pātāla to destroy the Nivātakavacas. They were dānavas in armour that could not be broken, enemies of Indra, who lived in the lower worlds. The divine chariot of Mātali took Arjuna from Amarāvatī down to the depths of the ocean and then into Pātāla, where the Nivātakavacas lived. At a hard moment in the battle, the Nivātakavacas had trapped the chariot of Arjuna under a storm of boulders and had seized the chariot horses. Mātali advised Arjuna to use the Vajrāstra, and this advice decided the fight.

After the Nivātakavacas were destroyed, Mātali also guided Arjuna’s attack on the second enemy force, the Pauloma and Kālakañja rākṣasas in their city in the air, Hiraṇyapura. At the end he told Indra of all the wins of Arjuna (Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 168–175).

Mahābhārata, Vana Parva: the Rāmopākhyāna

In the Rāmopākhyāna told in the Vana Parva, the last battle against Rāvaṇa was evenly matched, and Bhagavān Rāma needed a divine edge. Indra sent his own war chariot to help Bhagavān Rāma, and Mātali drove it.

The chariot was grand. It was the full divine war vehicle of Indra, with divine horses and divine arms, and with the full power of the puṇya of Indra behind it. Mātali drove Bhagavān Rāma in this chariot for the last meeting with Rāvaṇa. This let Bhagavān Rāma come near and kill him with the Brahmāstra that Agastya had given. The gift of the chariot through Mātali was the way Indra honoured the right cause of Bhagavān Rāma and took a personal part in the victory of dharma in the war (Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 273–292).

Udyoga Parva: the Mātali Upākhyāna

The Udyoga Parva holds an important account about Mātali, the Mātali Upākhyāna (Chapters 97–100). Kaṇva Maharṣi tells it in the court of the Kauravas during the peace mission of Kṛṣṇa. In it, Mātali cannot find a fit husband for his daughter Guṇakeśī among the devas or among men. He asks Nārada for help, and the two go down through Varuṇaloka, where the divine origin of the Gāṇḍīva bow is told, and through the Pātāla worlds. At last they reach Hiraṇyapura, the great dānava city in the underworld. The Upākhyāna is set within the account of the embassy as a teaching for the whole court (Mahābhārata, Udyoga Parva, Chapters 97–100).

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 64–71
• Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 43
• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 41–43 (Arjuna’s journey to Indraloka)
• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 168–175 (the Nivātakavacas and Hiraṇyapura)
• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 273–292 (Rāmopākhyāna)
• Mahābhārata, Udyoga Parva, Chapters 97–100 (Mātali Upākhyāna)