Divine Realm of the Mahabharata
Amaravati
अमरावती
Indra's capital
Amaravati: Indra's capital, located at coordinates 15.50°N, 80.00°E.
Key Facts
| Type | Divine Realm |
|---|---|
| Sanskrit name | अमरावती |
| Coordinates | 15.50°N, 80.00°E |
| Significance | Indra's capital |
About Amaravati
The celestial city of Indra. Arjuna visited here and received training from Indra.
Why it matters: Indra's capital
Rulers and Custodians
- Indra
Details
- Training
- Arjuna learned divine arts
- Urvashi
- Urvashi's curse turned Arjuna into Brihannala
- Gifts
- Received many divine weapons
On the Map
Amaravati sits at 15.50°N, 80.00°E.
View on the full mapEvents at Amaravati
- Garuda Steals the AmritaYear -990Garuda steals the Amrita from heaven to free his mother Vinata. He defeats the gods, makes a pact with Vishnu and Indra, and frees his mother.
- Arjuna at Indra's HeavenYear -25After obtaining weapons from Shiva and other gods, Arjuna is taken to Indra's heaven (Amaravati) by Matali in a divine chariot. He trains there for five years.
- The Slaying of VritraYear 1The demon Vritra swallows the waters of the world, and no weapon of heaven can wound him. The worlds can be saved only by a thunderbolt forged from the bones of the sage Dadhichi, who lays down his life willingly. Indra slays the demon at twilight with sea-foam - but the killing stains him with the sin of brahminicide, and even the king of the gods must flee, atone, and be purified before he is whole again.
- The Procession of IndrasYear 27Puffed up after his victory, Indra demands an ever-grander palace until his architect despairs. Vishnu comes as a boy and speaks of Indras beyond counting who have risen and fallen through the endless ages - and points to a marching column of ants, each of whom was once a king of the gods. Shown the true vastness of time, Indra's pride collapses, and he learns the middle way.
- The Moon and the Stolen BrideYear 34Chandra, the proud Moon-god, abducts Tara, the wife of the gods' own preceptor, and refuses to return her - kindling a war between gods and demons that shakes the cosmos. Brahma forces her return, but she bears the Moon's son, Budha, from whom springs the Lunar Dynasty of the Pandavas themselves. A companion tale explains the Moon's waxing and waning as the curse of Daksha.
- The Three-Headed PriestYear 55Indra, fearing the holy three-headed ascetic Trishira, slays him out of suspicion; the grieving father Tvashta creates the demon Vritra to avenge him, who nearly destroys the gods and parches the world, and Indra's killing by treachery leaves a guilt that pursues even the king of heaven.
- The King Who Was ForgottenYear 57Cast out of heaven when his fame fades from earth, King Indradyumna seeks someone who still remembers him - from the deathless Markandeya to an ancient owl, an older crane, and the oldest tortoise of all, who recalls the lake the king's charity made. His enduring deed, not his fame, restores him.
Stories Set at Amaravati
Samudra Manthan
The Churning of the Ocean
Garuda and the Amrita
The Great Bird's Quest
The Divine Arsenal
Arjuna's Ascent to Indraloka
Adventures in the Forest
Twelve Years of Pandava Exile
Ancient Beginnings
The Earth's Plea, the Descent of the Gods, and the Sages Who Began the Telling
The Slaying of Vritra
Dadhichi's Bones and Indra's Sin
The King and the Apsara
Pururavas and Urvashi
The Procession of Indras
Indra's Pride and the Vastness of Time
The Moon and the Stolen Bride
Chandra, Tara, and the Lunar Dynasty
The Birth of the Wind-Gods
Diti, Indra, and the Maruts
The Three-Headed Priest
Indra's suspicion, the birth of Vritra, and the sin that followed
The King Who Was Forgotten
A search among the oldest beings for one who remembers
Tapati and Samvarana
The Daughter of the Sun
The Parijata Tree
Satyabhama and the Flower of Heaven
The Curse of Urvashi
Restraint turned into a shield
Chitrasena, Friend in Two Worlds
The arts master of heaven
The Arm on the Bird's Shoulder
The strongest flier in the worlds, taught his size
The Thumb-Sized Sages
A god's idle joke and the bird it created
The War Beneath the Sea
The fee Indra charged for the divine weapons
What Left Prahlada
Indra begs the one thing worth taking
The Mortal Who Sat on Indra's Throne
A warning tale for a king about to win
Amaravati, City of Indra
The capital of heaven in the epic
The Five Halls of the Gods
Narada describes the assemblies of the world-guardians
Ambarisha and His General
A tale of sacrifice remade, told to ease a king's war-grief
The Pole Raised for a Friend
A king who came down from his penance, and the festival he left behind
The Age After the Axe
How the warrior caste came back, and how it was spoiled again
The Apsara Sent to Break a Sage
Menaka's fear, and the child left on the Malini
The Twins in the Heath
Indra's dancer, a sage's dropped bow, and the children a king carried home
The Elephant the Sage Called Son
Gautama argues his way through every heaven for a stolen calf
The Naked Priest of Varanasi
How a king outbid Indra for a brother nobody wanted
The Battle No One Else Can Fight
Krishna names the enemies still living in Yudhishthira's flesh
The Rain Agastya Did Not Need
Twelve years of drought against one sage's seeds
Kurukshetra Day 8: The Rakshasa's Hour
Iravan falls and Ghatotkacha answers for him
The Head That Followed Indra
A treaty kept to the letter and broken in every other way
Bali in the Nooses of Varuna
The prisoner who would not be mocked, and the god who let him be
Fortune Changes Sides
Why Sri deserted the asuras, told on a bank of the Ganga
The Four Shares of a Sin
Who agreed to carry a quarter of Indra's guilt, and what it cost them
The Return of the Portions
Who everybody turned out to have been
The Cow Who Wept for the Weaker Calf
Indra learns why a mother's love is not divided equally
Devasena and the Husband Not Yet Born
A rescue on the Manasa hills and a promise the gods had to invent someone to keep
The Savitri Mantra of Salutations
Bhishma gives Yudhishthira the roll of names to be said at dawn
The Rewards of the Eighteen Parvas
Vaishampayana prices each stage of hearing the Bharata against a sacrifice, from the Agnishtoma to twenty-one thousand years with Indra
Garuda's Pact and the Forked Tongues
How the snakes lost the nectar and got their split tongues
Madhavi Chooses the Forest
At her own swayamvara she passes over every king and takes the woods for a husband
The Fowler's Cry
Brihaspati teaches Indra how to subdue an enemy without fighting him
Bhrigu in Agastya's Hair
How an unseen sage cursed the mortal king of heaven into a snake
The Three Sages Who Saved the Gods
Agastya burns the Danavas, Vashishtha brings down the Sarayu, and Atri becomes the moon and the sun
The Four Ways to Spend a Life
Yayati, falling out of heaven, answers Ashtaka on the asramas and the road to Brahma
Indra Comes to Gandhamadana
Matali brings Arjuna home from heaven, and the king of the gods follows him down
Tarkshya Asks Saraswati
What a gift is worth, and the one merit a man with nothing can still earn
How the Krittikas Took Abhijit's Place
A star leaves the sky in envy of her elder sister, and Skanda's six nurses are raised into the empty station
The Secret of the Gods
Vyasa tells the blind king why the war was ordained before his eldest son was born
The Gods and the Salavrikas
Vyasa answers Yudhishthira's guilt with the war heaven fought for thirty-two thousand years
The Mysteries of Religion, Part One
The deities, the Pitris and the Rishis each give up a duty whose reason is secret
The Brahmanas and the Kapas
The gods lose heaven and earth, and men on the ground win them back
The Kings Who Gave Lawfully
Indra refuses the Rishis, a king answers too quickly, and the names of those who reached heaven by honest gifts