Editing Matsya (section)

=== Saviour of Manu from the Deluge ===
[[File:Matsya Avatar, ca 1870.jpg|thumb|300px|Vishnu-Matsya appearing from mouth of a horned fish, pulling the boat with Manu and the seven sages. Matsya has recovered the Vedic scriptures from the demon Hayagriva, who lies dead in the ocean. {{Circa|1860}}-1870. V&A Museum.<ref>{{Citation |author=Unknown |title=Vishnu as Matsya |date=1860–1870 |url=http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O68636/vishnu-as-matsya-painting-unknown/ |access-date=2023-06-11 |archive-date=11 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230611005037/http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O68636/vishnu-as-matsya-painting-unknown/ |url-status=live }}</ref>]]

The tale of Matsya also appears in sec. 186 of Book 3 (the ''[[Vana Parva]]'') of the epic ''[[Mahabharata]]''.{{sfn|Rao|1914|p=124}}{{sfn|Bonnefoy|1993|pp= 79–80}} The legend begins with Manu (specifically [[Shraddhadeva Manu|Vaivasvata Manu]], the present Manu. Manu is envisioned as a title, rather than an individual) performing religious rituals on the banks of the Chirini River in Vishāla forest. A little fish comes to him and asks for his protection, promising to save him from a deluge in the future.{{sfn|Krishna|2009|p=33}} The legend moves in the same vein as the Vedic version. Manu places him in the jar. Once it outgrows the jar, the fish asks to be put into a tank which Manu helps with. Then the fish outgrows the tank, and with Manu's help reaches the [[Ganges River]] (Ganga), finally to the ocean. Manu is asked by the fish, as in the ''Shatapatha Brahmana'' version, to build a ship and additionally, to be in it with [[Saptarishi]] (seven sages) and all sorts of seeds, on the day of the expected deluge.{{sfn|Krishna|2009|p=33}}{{sfn|Bonnefoy|1993|pp= 79–80}} Manu accepts the fish's advice. The deluge begins. The fish arrives to Manu's aid. He ties the ship with a rope to the horn of the fish, who then steers the ship to the Himalayas, carrying Manu through a turbulent storm. The danger passes. The fish then reveals himself as [[Brahma]] and gives the power of creation to Manu.{{sfn|Krishna|2009|p=33}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03186.htm|title=The Mahabharata, Book 3: Vana Parva: Markandeya-Samasya Parva: Section CLXXXVI|website=www.sacred-texts.com|access-date=2020-01-12|archive-date=20 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020114018/https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03186.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Roy|2002|pp=84–5}}

The key difference between the Vedic version and the ''Mahabharata'' version of the allegorical legend are the latter's identification of Matsya with Brahma, a more explicit discussion of the "law of the fishes" where the weak needs the protection from the strong, and the fish asking Manu to bring along sages and grains.{{sfn|Bonnefoy|1993|pp= 79–80}}<ref name="Daniélou1964p166"/><ref name="Hiltebeitel1991p177">{{cite book|author=Alf Hiltebeitel|title=The cult of Draupadī: Mythologies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VncomfRVVhoC&pg=PA177 |year=1991 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1000-6|pages=177–178, 202–203 with footnotes}}</ref>

The ''[[Matsya Purana]]'' identifies the fish-savior (Matsya) with Vishnu, instead of Brahma.{{sfn|Bonnefoy|1993|p= 80}} The [[Puranas|Purana]] derives its name from Matsya and begins with the tale of Manu.{{refn|group=note|Manu is presented as the ancestor of two mythical royal dynasties (solar or son-based, lunar or daughter-based)<ref>{{cite book|author1=Ronald Inden|author2=Jonathan Walters|author3=Daud Ali|title=Querying the Medieval: Texts and the History of Practices in South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0GyRBXRdiOwC |year=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-535243-6|pages=180–181}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Bibek Debroy|author2=Dipavali Debroy|title=The history of Puranas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6oQlAQAAIAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Bharatiya Kala |isbn=978-81-8090-062-4|page=640}}</ref>}} King Manu renounces the world. Pleased with his austerities on [[Malaya mountains]] (interpreted as [[Kerala]] in Southern India{{sfn|Shastri|Tagare|1999|p=1116}}), Brahma grants his wish to rescue the world at the time of the ''[[pralaya]]'' (dissolution at end of a ''[[Kalpa (aeon)|kalpa]]'').{{refn|group=note|As per [[Hindu units of time#Brahma|Hindu time cycles]], a ''kalpa'' is a period of 4.32 billion years, equivalent to a day in the life of Brahma. Each ''kalpa'' is divided into 14 ''[[manvantara]]''s, each reigned by a Manu, who becomes progenitor of mankind. Brahma creates the worlds and life in his day - the ''kalpa'' and sleeps in his night - the ''pralaya'', when Brahma's creation is destroyed. Brahma reawakens at the start of the new ''kalpa'' (day) and recreates.}} As in other versions, Manu encounters a little fish that miraculously increases in size over time and soon he transfers the fish to the Ganges and later to the ocean.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/144550129|title=Matsya mahāpurāṇa : an exhaustive introduction, Sanskrit text, English translation, scholarly notes and index of verses|date=2007|publisher=Parimal Publications|others=Kanhaiyālāla Jośī|isbn=978-81-7110-306-5|edition=1st|location=Delhi|oclc=144550129}}</ref> Manu recognizes the fish as Vishnu. The fish warns him about the impending fiery end of ''kalpa'' accompanied with the ''pralaya'' as a deluge. The fish once again has a horn, but the gods gift a ship to Manu. Manu carries all types of living creatures and plant seeds to produce food for everyone after the deluge is over. When the great flood begins, Manu ties the cosmic serpent [[Shesha]] to the fish's horn. In the journey towards the mountains, Manu asks questions to Matsya and their dialogue constitutes the rest of the Purana.{{sfn|Bonnefoy|1993|p= 80}}<ref name="Dalal2011">{{cite book|author=Roshen Dalal|title=Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DH0vmD8ghdMC&pg=PA250|access-date=12 January 2013|year= 2011|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=978-0-14-341421-6|page=250}}</ref><ref name="Glucklich2008p155">{{cite book|author=Ariel Glucklich|title=The Strides of Vishnu: Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KtLScrjrWiAC&pg=PA155 |year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-971825-2|pages=155–165}}</ref>

The ''Matsya Purana'' story is also symbolic. The fish is divine to begin with, and needs no protection, only recognition and devotion. It also ties the story to its cosmology, connecting two ''kalpa''s through the cosmic symbolic residue in the form of Shesha.{{sfn|Bonnefoy|1993|p= 80}} In this account, the ship of Manu is called the ship of the Vedas, thus signifying the rites and rituals of the Vedas. Roy further suggests that this may be an allusion to the gold ship of Manu in the ''Rigveda''.{{sfn|Roy|2002|p=85}}
<!-- As stated by the [[Agni Purana]] (see above), V. R. R. Dikshitar notes that after the flood, when 'the boat was floating in the dark waters, [[Krishna|Vasudeva]], in the form of a fish, addressed the [[Matsya Purana]] to [[Shraddhadeva Manu|Manu]]'.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.9097|title=Matsya Purana a study|last=Dikshitar|first=V. R. Ramachandra|date=1935|pages=4}}</ref> [[Horace Hayman Wilson|H.H. Wilson]] adds that the legend of Matsya 'is told in the [[Mahabharata]], with reference to the Matsya [Purana] as its authority; from which it might be inferred, that the [[Puranas|Purana]] was prior to the poem'.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.217330|title=Puranas|last=H H Wilson|date=1911|pages=84}}</ref> -->

In the ''[[Garuda Purana]]'', Matsya is said to have rescued the seventh Manu, Vaivasvata Manu, from the great deluge by placing him in a boat.{{sfn|Garuda Purana|2002|p=4}} The ''[[Linga Purana]]'' praises Vishnu as the one who saved various beings as a fish by tying a boat to his tail.{{sfn|Shastri|1990|p=514}}