Editing Matsya (section)

===In avatar lists===
[[File:Matsya avatar.jpg|thumb|Matsya avatar in [[British Museum]], 1820]]
Matsya is generally enlisted as the first avatar of Vishnu, especially in Dashavatara (ten major avatars of Vishnu) lists.{{sfn|Shastri|Tagare|1999|p=26}} However, that was not always the case. Some lists do not list Matsya as first, and only later texts start the trend of Matsya as the first avatar.<ref name="Dalal2011" />

In the ''Garuda Purana'' listing of the Dashavatara, Matsya is the first.{{sfn|Garuda Purana|2002|p=265}}{{sfn|Garuda Purana|2002a|p=869}} The ''Linga Purana'', the ''Narada Purana'', the ''Shiva Purana'', the ''Varaha Purana'', the ''Padma Purana'', the ''Skanda Purana'' also mention Matsya as the first of the ten classical avatars.{{sfn|Shastri|1990|p=774}}{{sfn|Narada Purana|1997|p=1450}}{{sfn|Varaha Purana|1960|p=13}}{{sfn|Shastri|2000|p=873}}{{sfn|Padma Purana|1956|p=3166}}{{sfn|Skanda Purana|2003|pp=431–2}}

The ''Bhagavata Purana'' and the ''Garuda Purana'' regard Matsya as the tenth of 22 avatars and describe him as the "support of the earth".{{sfn|Shastri|Tagare|1999|pp=26, 190}}{{sfn|Garuda Purana|2002|p=4}}

The ''Ayidhya-Mahatmya'' of the ''Skanda Purana'' mentions 12 avatars of Vishnu, with Matsya as the 2nd avatar. Matsya is said to support Manu, plants and others like a boat at the end of Brahma's day (''pralaya'').<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.13008|title=THE SKANDA-PURANA PART. 7|last=N.A|date=1951|publisher=MOTILAL BANARSIDASS PUBLISHERS PVT. LTD, DELHI|page=286}}</ref>