Raajaa Maandhaataa's story comes in several Puraan. He was in the line of Vaivaswat Manu's one son Ikshwaaku > Vikukshi > Puranjaya >> Yuvanaashwa. Yuvanaashwa's son was Maandhaataa. First Yuvanaashwa was childless even though he had 100 wives. So he took his wives and went to forest. There he tried to do a Yagya to get a son. During the Yagya period, one day Yuvanaashwa got very thirsty at night. All were sleeping and the Yagya holy water was kept there. so he drank that water and slept. In fact that water was meant for his wife so that she could deliver a son. When Rishi got in the morning, they did not see Yagya water, so they got worried, Yuvanaashwa accepted that he drank that water. There was nothing anything could except wait and watch. After long time Yuvanaashwa gave birth to a son who came out ripping his right side of stomach. Now who will feed him the milk? So Indra himself came and gave his index finger and said "I will feed him milk." Thus he was named Maandhaataa - Maan means myself, and Dhaataa means nourisher.

Maandhaataa had three glorious sons - Purukuts, Ambareesh and Muchukund and 50 daughters. There was a Rishi named Saubhari. Once he decided that he should marry, so he went to Maandhaataa and asked him to marry one of his daughters to him. Maandhaataa got very sad hearing this as he did not think that any of his daughters would like to marry this old Rishi, but he was afraid of his curse also. Besides he did not want to say "no" to him also. So he thought a way. He told him that he had given his all daughters the right to choose their husband, so he will let them meet him and if anyone would like him, he will surely marry her to him. So he called the guards of the palaces of his daughters and send the Rishi to his daughters' palaces. They took him there.

When Rishi arrived in the palace he changed himself to a fine young man. The guards announced to the daughters - "Your father has sent this man to you, if anybody wants to marry him, she would be married to him." Now all the daughters wanted to marry him. Hearing this those guards came back to the King and reported him that "your all daughters want to marry him". Maandhaataa got very surprised to know this, but according to his statement he married all of his daughters to Saubhari Muni, and uni went to his Aashram with his 50 wives.

After some time Maandhaataa thought - "Let me go and see how my daughters are living with that old man? Are they happy or not?" So he went there, but he could not recognized the place. Instead of a Rishi's Aashram, there were 50 huge palaces. He was thinking where to go and what to do, that one of his daughters came out from one of those palaces and called her father. Maandhaataa went to her palace. She welcomed him warmly. When Maandhaataa asked her if she was happy with Muni, she told him that she was more than happy, but sometimes she was sad thinking that since Muni lived with her all the time, her other sisters must be cursing her. She was really sorry for them. Hearing this Maandhaataa also got very sad, so he went to her other daughters also, but surprisingly enough, his all daughters said the same thing to him. He got very satisfied with this marriage, he met Muni too, thanked him and went back to his palace.

Maandhaataa was the only human being whom Raavan could not defeat. He was not less than Raavan, so Maharshi Gaalav and Maharshi Pulastya Jee had to intervene and stop their fight.