Written by London Swaminathan

Post No. 15,814

Date uploaded in London –1 June 2026

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Part 67

Mātaṅga (Sanskrit: मातंग) literally means an elephant.

MATANGA. ‘An elephant.’ A man who was brought up as a Brahman but was the son of a Chandala. His story, as told in the Mahabharata, relates that he was mercilessly goading an ass’s foal which he was driving. The mother ass, seeing this, tells her foal that she could expect no better, for her driver was no Brahman but a Chandala. Matanga, addressing the ass as ” most intelligent,” begged to know how this was, and was informed that his mother when intoxicated had received the embraces of a low-born barber, and that he, the offspring, was a Chandala and no Brahman. In order to obtain elevation to the position of a Brahman, he went through such a course of austerities as alarmed the gods. Indra refused to admit him. He persevered again for a hundred years, but still Indra persistently refused such an impossible request, and advised him to seek some other boon. Nothing daunted, he went on a thousand years longer, with the same result. Though dejected he did not despair but proceeded to balance himself on his great toe. He continued to do this for a hundred years, when he was reduced to mere skin and bone, and was on the point of falling. Indra went to support him, but inexorably refused his request, and, when further importuned, “gave him the power of moving about like a bird, and changing his shape at will, and of being honoured and renowned.” In the Ramayana, Rama and Sita visited the hermitage of Matanga near Rishyamukha mountain

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ME Words

Medathithi

Name of a Vedic seer in Kanwa clan. There is a legend in one of the Upanishads that he was carried up to heaven by Indra in the form of a ram, because the god had been pleased with his austerities.

He is compared with Ganymede of Greece who was abducted by the eagle of Zeus. His Phrygian cap denoting an eastern origin, and a river god.

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Medhavi

Son of rishi Baladhi. As a result of his father’s severe penances, he had obtained a boon that he wouldn’t die as long as the mountain remain standing. Thinking that he was immortal he became arrogant and illtreated other brahmana. At last rishi Dhanusaksha caused a ram to be born and this ram destroyed the mountain with its horns and thus brought an end to Medhavi’s life. This episode was related by Bharadwaja to his son Yavakrita to impress upon him that he who became arrogant came to grief in the end.

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Menaka

A beautiful apsaras whom Indra sent to earth to entice Vishwamitra rishi and distract him from his severe penances because Indra became concerned at the thought that Vishwamitra may accumulate too much merit and thus threaten his own security. Menaka appeared before him and seduced him. He lived with her for long and Menaka gave birth to Shakuntala .

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Mena

In the rig Veda Mena was the daughter of Vrishanaswa. Indra fell in love with here. In the puranas, wife of Himavat and mother of Uma and ganga and of a son named Mainaka .

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Meru

A fabulous mountain  in the centre of the earth, on which is situated swarga, the heaven of Indra. It is north of Himalaya. It is depicted as north pole in some descriptions. Other names are Sumeru, Hemadri Ratnasaanu, Karnikaachala, Amaraadri, Deva Parvata .

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Mithila

Capital city of Videha, north Bihar. It was the country of king Janaka and the name of his capital Janakapura, now called Janakpur. Since Sita devi was born here she was called Mythili.

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Mlechcha

Foreigners, barbarians, people who came from out side india. Sangam tamil books also referred to them as people of harsh words “incomprehensible speech” or unintelligible accents; During medieval times, the term was frequently used to refer to Arab, Persian, and Muslim invaders who came into the subcontinent.

Mlecha in Mullaippattu:

In the200 year old  Sangam Tamil literature we come across the word Mlecha in Mullaippaattu (line 66). Poet Napputhanar called the Yavanas as Mlechas. He described them as dumb who used only sign language. Lot of Roman or Greek bodyguards were used by the Tamil kings. Tamils called the Yavanas (Romans) ‘mlechas’ because they did not speak Tamil and they were from foreign soil.

Mlecha in Mahabharata: In the Adiparavam and Drona Parvam we come across the word Mlecha referring to an engineer (Purochana) who constructed the lac house and kings who fought in the Great Bharata War. They were all from the North West of India. Vidura was said to have spoken to him in the Mlecha language

Nigel Lewis observation on Mlecha in his book ‘The Book of Babel’ is very interesting. He says “the Greek equivalent of barbarians was Aglossoi, the speechless, while the Poles  had the same idea about Germans, whom they called ‘niemiec’, the dumb people. The Turks got this word from the Poles and used it for the Austrians. Even Coleridge used it as nimiety with regard to Germans”.

“Commenting on the word vealh, oe wealh, the Barbarian British, or Welsh, Max Muller writes it is supposed to be the same as the Sanskrit mlekkha, and, if so,  it meant originally a person who talks indistinctly. Mlekkah has also been identified with ‘Beluchi’: a strange area of probable common ground between Beluchistan and the principality of Wales, whose very name was an Anglo Saxon insult”.

“Also insulting was the now defunct nickname for the Jamaican Jabbering crow, it was called the Welshman because according to Edward Long ‘with their strange , noisy gabble of guttural sounds’… they are thought to have much  the confused vociferation of a party of Welsh people”

-from ‘ The Book of Babel’

Mleccha (म्लेच्छ).—A tribe of people of ancient India. This tribe was born from the tail of the celestial cow Nandinī, kept by Vasiṣṭha for sacrificial purposes when there was a fight between Viśvāmitra and Vasiṣṭha. Mahābhārata gives the following information regarding them.

The mlecchas who sprang up from the tail of the celestial cow Nandinī sent the army of Viśvāmitra flying in terror. (Śloka 38, Chapter 174, Ādi Parva)

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Meganatha

Eldest Son of Ravana ; his epithet is Indrajit, one who conquered indra. His heroic acts were described in Ramayana.

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Meghaduta

Cloud messenger is the meaning. It is a celebrated work by Kalidasa. It is the oldest travelogue describing the beauty of central india and north India; it is the oldest meteorological work I Sanskrit about the progress of South West Monsoon. A banished yaksha implores the monsoon cloud to covey his message to his wife

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Mitra (Varuna)

Vedic god Mitra meant sun, positive energy and light. He is associated with Varuna in the Vedic hymns; there Varuna meant sea, darkness and negative energy. They were like positive and negative nodes in a battery. Both are required to produce heat or light or energy. Mitra was the ruler of the day and Varuna was the ruler of night. They together uphold and rule the earth and sky, guard the world, encourage religion, and chastise sin. Mitra was one of the Adityas or sons of Aditi. One more example for link is sun/Mtra draws sea water/Varuna and pours down as rain/ Indra that goes to Sea/Varuna.

Mitra is a Vedic god. He is associated with the Sun. Mitra is another name of Sun as well. This Vedic god was worshipped throughout the Roman empire 2000 years ago. At one time there were 700 temples for Mitra in Rome. The worship reached Rome from Iran in a degenerated form. Wherever the rule of the Romans was extended there the cult of Mitra was also practised. Even in London they have excavated one Mitra temple sixty years ago.

In London an inscription dated to 310 CE was discovered. It said, “For the salvation of our Lords, the four emperors and the Caesar, and to the God Mithras the invincible sun from the east to the west”. Most of the British Christian churches were built in the model of Mithraeums.

Mithra in Germany, Picture by Subhashini, THF

To be continued……………………..

Tags- HINDU DICTIONARY IN ENGLISH AND TAMIL 67; இந்து மத கலைச்சொல் அகராதி-67 ,Mitra, Menaka, Medathithi