Matsya Avatāra

Matsya is the first of the Daśāvatāras, the ten avatāras (descents) of Bhagavān Vishṇu. Bhagavān Vishṇu takes the form of a great fish (matsya) to bring back the Vedas that were lost in the ocean of dissolution at the start of a new creation. Several texts tell of this avatāra: the Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, the Agni Mahā Purāṇa, the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa and the Mahābhārata.

The event in the Varāha Mahā Purāṇa

At the dawn of each new creation, after his long yoga-nidrā (cosmic sleep), Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa woke and thought of the Vedas. He found that they had dissolved into the waters during the dissolution. He decided:

“The Vedas have merged into the water. I will enter the water as a fish and find them.”

He took the form of a great fish, as vast as a mountain, and dived into the primordial ocean. The devas saw this terrifying form rise from the waters and praised him in alarm and awe:

“O Nārāyaṇa, whose form is to be known through the Vedas, O Matsya-rūpa, O melodious-sounding Deva, O Viśvamūrti, salutation to you!”

“O Sūrya, Candra, Deva, O Prabhu Nārāyaṇa who stood firm when the world merged into water, O beautiful-eyed Deva, O Vishṇu, we take refuge. Please give up this fish-form and protect us.”

“O Master of infinite forms, this whole world is filled with you. Is there anything, even a little, that is different from you? You too are not of a form apart from this. We exist because of you. We take refuge in you.”

Bhagavān Vishṇu, in the form of Matsya, brought back the Vedas together with the Upanishads, and then returned to his own form. The text then says:

“As long as Bhagavān Vishṇu takes his original form, this universe appears. When he rests in his own Prakṛti, it merges into him. When vikāra (change) arises, it grows.”

The fish was as big as a mountain as it dived into the wide ocean. By bringing back the Vedas it restored the foundation for the next cycle of creation. (Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 9)

Matsya in Gauramukha’s stotra

At Prabhāsa tīrtha (a holy place), Gauramukha praises Matsya in a stotra:

“What ancient deva, when the Vedas were stolen, took his own body as a fish, and with the flames at the tip of his tail as battle-fire destroyed the asura? That deva I always praise.”

The text tells that rākshasas had stolen the Vedas during the dissolution. Matsya took them back from the one who had carried them off. (Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 15)

Why Matsya is honoured

The Nara-Nārāyaṇa ṛshis at Badarī advise:

“Those who seek complete knowledge (sarva-jñāna) should worship Matsya-rūpa Hari.”

(Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 48)

The monthly vrata

The Matsya avatāra is honoured in the Mārgaśīrsha Dvādaśī vrata (vow of observance). This is the base form of the Dharaṇī vrata taught by Durgāsa. A golden fish image is placed in the kumbha (water pot). It stands for Bhagavān Vishṇu as Matsya, bringing the Vedas up from the waters. The prayer of the rite says:

“O Keśava! Just as you brought the Vedas up from Rasātala in fish-form, so too lift me.”

(Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 39)

Matsya in the Agni Purāṇa

The Agni Mahā Purāṇa, in its second chapter, tells of the Matsya avatāra as the first of the Daśāvatāras. It opens with the end of the previous kalpa (age of creation).

At the close of that kalpa, Brahmā fell into his cosmic sleep. Because of that sleep the great pralaya (dissolution) came over all the worlds. Bhūloka and the others were wholly submerged under the primordial ocean. In this time the asura Hayagrīva took his chance and stole the Vedas from Brahmā.

Vaivasvata Manu wanted both the fruits of this world and moksha (liberation). He performed tapas (austerity) and was offering tarpaṇa (an offering of water) in the holy river Kṛtamālā. As he held water in his cupped hands, a tiny fish appeared in it. Manu moved to throw the fish back into the river. The fish spoke: “O Great King, I fear the crocodiles and other creatures of these waters. Do not put me there.” Moved by its plea, Manu placed the fish in his kamaṇḍalu (water pot).

The fish grew fast and outgrew the kamaṇḍalu. It was moved to a pond, then to a lake, then to a river, and at last to the ocean. There, in a single moment, it grew to a length of one hundred thousand crores of yojanas. The golden fish shone with a single horn. Manu was filled with wonder and said: “Who are you? You are truly Vishṇu himself. Nārāyaṇa! Janārdana! Why do you bewilder me like this with your māyā?” The fish then told its purpose: it had come as an avatāra to keep the world and to destroy the wicked.

Matsya-Vishṇu warned Manu that in seven days the ocean would rise and drown all creation. He told Manu to board a boat when it came, carrying seeds, the seven ṛshis and all that was needed for the next creation. When the waters came, Manu was to tie the boat to Matsya’s horn with a great serpent as the rope. Manu waited faithfully. When the floods of the saṃvartaka pralaya came, he boarded the boat. The great golden one-horned Matsya arrived, and Manu tied the boat to its horn. Carried safely through the flood, Manu heard from Matsya the holy Mātsya Purāṇa, which destroys all pāpa (sin).

Then Keśava, in his Matsya form, slew the asura Hayagrīva, who had stolen the Vedas from Brahmā, and so won back the Vedas and restored them. After that the Vārāha Kalpa came, and Hari took the Kūrma avatāra.

(Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 2)

Matsya in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa

The 8th Skandha of the Bhāgavata tells of the Matsya avatāra in more detail. The scene is again the close of the previous kalpa. Brahmā fell into the sleep of the pralaya, and the daitya Hayagrīva stole the Vedas from his sleeping mouth. Bhagavān Vishṇu saw this and took the form of a fish.

In this account the rājarshi (royal seer) Satyavrata was a great devotee of Nārāyaṇa. He was performing tapas in the Draviḍa country and lived on water alone. He was offering tarpaṇa in the holy river Kṛtamālā when a small fish appeared in his cupped hands. The 8th Skandha says plainly that Satyavrata is the future Vaivasvata Manu.

The fish grew from the kamaṇḍalu to a well, and from the well to larger and larger lakes, and at last to the ocean. At each stage it outgrew its place overnight. In the ocean the fish still said: “The creatures here will eat me. Do not leave me.” Satyavrata now saw how impossible this growth was and knew the truth. He spoke to Bhagavān Vishṇu directly: “You must be Nārāyaṇa himself, for no other being could grow like this.”

During the pralaya, on the boat, Satyavrata offered a great stotra. He named Bhagavān Vishṇu the guru of all gurus, the one who alone can undo the knot of ajñāna (ignorance) in the heart, and whose grace one hundred devas together could not match. He ended: “O Devadevanātha, teach me the tattva (truth); cut the knots of kāma (desire); show me your own svarūpa (true form).”

Matsya Bhagavān Vishṇu taught him the Matsyapurāṇa, which includes ātmajñāna (knowledge of the self), bhaktiyoga and karma, through the whole night of the pralaya. The 8th Skandha says that Satyavrata did not only understand. By the grace of Bhagavān Vishṇu he reached direct ātma-sākshātkāra (seeing the self). In the next kalpa he became Vaivasvata Manu.

(Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 8th Skandha, Chapter 24)

Matsya in the Matsya Purāṇa

The Matsya Mahā Purāṇa itself opens with this avatāra. The whole Purāṇa is the teaching that Matsya Bhagavān Vishṇu gave to Vaivasvata Manu during the pralaya.

Its account begins with the end of the previous kalpa, the sleep of Brahmā, and the theft of the Vedas by Hayagrīva. The fish appears to Manu while he is offering tarpaṇa at the Kṛtamālā river. It grows through the kamaṇḍalu, a well, a tank, a lake and the ocean. At each stage it pleads not to be left to the mercy of larger creatures. In the ocean Manu sees that such growth is impossible and calls the fish Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa. Then Matsya shows himself and warns that the pralaya will come in seven days. He tells Manu to board the nāvā (boat) with seeds and the Saptarshis (seven ṛshis), and to use Vāsuki as the rope that binds the boat to his horn.

On the journey through the pralaya, Matsya draws the boat through the dark primordial ocean. He slays Hayagrīva and gives the Vedas back to Brahmā. He teaches Manu the whole Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, the very text that is thus made and handed down.

(Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 1–2)

Matsya in the Mahābhārata

The Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata (Chapter 187), in the Mārkaṇḍeya Samāsyā Parva, also keeps an account of the Matsya avatāra. Mārkaṇḍeya Maharshi tells it to the Pāṇḍavas as part of his teaching on cosmic time, dissolution and the sustaining grace of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Here Vaivasvata Manu was performing tapas on the banks of the Cīriṇī river. During his tapas and his offerings (arghya and tarpaṇa), a small fish appeared in the water in his cupped hands. The fish spoke and asked Manu for protection. It asked not to be sent back to the river, where larger fish would eat it.

Manu put the fish in a vessel. It grew fast overnight and outgrew the vessel, and Manu moved it to a well. It outgrew the well and was moved to a larger body of water. It kept growing through tanks and lakes until it was moved to the Gaṅgā herself, and last to the ocean. There it grew to a vast size and still pleaded that no container was large enough to hold it. All through this wonderful growth the fish went on speaking with Manu and told him how to care for it.

At the ocean the fish warned Manu that a mahā-pralaya (great dissolution) was close. It told Manu to build a great boat. When the waters of the pralaya rose, Manu was to board the boat with seeds of every kind for the next creation, and tie the boat to the fish’s single horn with a great rope. The fish would then tow the boat through the primordial waters.

The pralaya came as foretold. Manu boarded his boat. The fish, now of cosmic size, pulled the boat through the flood and brought it safely to rest on the peak of Naukābandha, a great mountain. The name means “where the boat was tied”. Manu waited there through the dissolution and became the father of the new creation.

The fish then told who it truly was: Bhagavān Vishṇu himself, or, in some formulations, Brahmā in the form of a fish. He had taken this avatāra to protect Manu and the seeds of life through the great dissolution.

(Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapter 187)

Sources

• Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 9, 15, 39, 48
• Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 2
• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 8th Skandha, Chapter 24
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 1–2
• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapter 187