Mātaṅga Jātaka

[Full title: Jātakas and Avadānas in the Amarāvatī Art: Mātaṅga Jātaka]

Story:-

When Brahmadatta was ruling Banaras, Bodhisattva was born as the son of a caṇḍala. He was named Mātaṅga and was recognized as wise Mātaṅga. One day Diṭṭha maṅgalika, the daughter of a merchant of Banaras came to a park for enjoyment and when she started coming out of the city gate she met Mātaṅga. When she came to know that he was a caṇḍala her companions beat the innocent Mātaṅga till he became unconscious. When Mātaṅga recovered he was determined to get Diṭṭhamaṅgalika. So he fell down at the door of her father’s house. On the seventh day the girl was given to him. Since Mātaṅga was very weak, she carried him on her back and went to the caṇḍāla’s settlement.

Mātaṅga wanting to teach the rules of caste, morals and ethics to Diṭṭhamaṅgalika embraced the life of religious ascetic. In seven days he developed the eight attainments and the five supernatural faculties. By his supernatural powers he returned to his house and went to meet Diṭṭhamaṅgalika. He then told her to make her more glorious than her former glory but for this, she had to tell the people that her husband is not Mātaṅga, but the Great Brahma. With these words, he went to the Himālayas.

On the appointed day he broke the lunar disc, came to his wife and touched her navel who immediately conceived. The Great Being told her the greatness of the son to be born who shall receive the highest honour and tribute. The devotees who assembled around her worshipped her. They built a pavilion for her where Diṭṭhamaṅgalika gave birth to a son named Maṇḍavya Kumāra. From the age of sixteen he provided food only for the Brāhmiṇs.

Mātaṅga in his hermitage in the Himalayas saw that his son was going in the wrong way. He decided to teach him to bestow gifts only to the worthy person. He put on ragged robe, earthen bowl and went through the air to the alms gateway and stood on one side. The moment Maṇḍavya saw him he ordered his men to cast him out as he was an outcaste and a goblin. As his people came near him Mātaṅga rose up in the sky beyond the reach of Maṇḍavya’s men and proceded to the hall and began to partake food. The city guards became furious and attacked the sage. Then Mātaṅga in anger twisted the neck of Maṇḍavya and other Brahmans. On hearing this Diṭṭhimaṅgalika came crying to her husband. Mātaṅga gave the elixir of immortality and Diṭṭhimaṅgalika put some in her son’s mouth and rest to other Brahmans. She told her son to give bounty to the virtuous and not evil ones. She enlightened him on the merit of gifts to the deserving^[1].

Depiction:-

The synoptic narrative episode of the Jātaka is found on a limestone coping from Amarāvatī which illustrates three main events. It is housed in the Madras Government Museum (Pl 16a). In the first panel, on the right side is a woman, possibly Diṭṭhimaṅgalika carrying Mātaṅga on her back. The central panel shows the ascetic Mātaṅga, who slowly rises up from his seat into the air and returns to his house after obtaining super natural powers in the forest. He is shown in the panel as kneeling and holding her with his two hands. The two standing persons in anjali attitude are observing the incident. The scene not only shows Mātaṅga promising her to make her glorious but also holding her hands with his outstretched hands to suggest the symbolic transformation of supernatural powers in her body to make her conceive. The left side of the panel, though broken shows the mutilated body of someone flying down from heaven to lower regions. It probably suggests that Mātaṅga came down from the moon. The lower broken panel might have portrayed the citizens of Banaras observing the supernatural powers of Mātaṅga^[2].

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Cowell E.B, Op.cit, Vol-III -IV, No. 497, pp 235-244

[2]:

Sivaramamurti C, Op.cit, pp 224-225, pl LII, fig 1.