Vaivasvata Manu

Vaivasvata Manu is the seventh Manu and the son of Sūrya (Vivasvān) and Saṃjñā. He is the Manu who presides over the present age. The Purāṇas also tell of him in the account of the Matsya avatāra of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. While he was doing tapas (austerity) and offering water at the Kṛtamālā river, he found a fish that grew larger and larger. That fish was the form taken by Bhagavān Viṣṇu. Bhagavān Matsya guided him through the great flood of pralaya (dissolution) and taught him the Vedic knowledge anew for the world after the flood. Through his son Ikṣvāku he is the father of the Solar dynasty and an ancestor of Bhagavān Rāma.

Lineage and identity

Vaivasvata Manu is the son of Vivasvān (Sūrya, the Sun) and Saṃjñā. He is the seventh of the fourteen Manus who, one after another, preside over the fourteen manvantaras (ages of a Manu) that make up one day of Brahmā. The present age, the Vaivasvata-manvantara, is named for him. All present human life unfolds in this age.

He is the forefather (ādipuruṣa) of all the family lines of this age. His ten principal sons founded the great dynasties. Among them, Ikṣvāku founded the Solar dynasty (Sūryavaṃśa), whose most radiant descendant was Bhagavān Rāma. Among his children was also Iḷā, who in a later change became Sudyumna, the father of the Lunar line (Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 5).

The Matsya episode in the Agni Mahā Purāṇa

Vaivasvata Manu was doing tapas and offering water (tarpaṇa) on the bank of the Kṛtamālā river. In the water cupped in his hands he found a tiny fish. The fish spoke to him: “O Mahārāja, there is danger for me here from crocodiles and other creatures. Do not cast me back into the river.”

Manu felt pity and put the fish in a pot. It grew quickly. He moved it to a pond, and it grew to fill the pond. He moved it to a lake, and it grew to fill the lake. At last he set it free in the ocean. There, in an instant, it grew to a length of ten lakh yojanas, shining like gold, with a single great horn.

Manu was amazed. He understood the truth and spoke to the fish with devotion: “Who are you? Surely you are Viṣṇu himself. O Nārāyaṇa, salutation to you. O Janārdana, why do you bewitch me through your māyā?”

The fish was moved by his insight and told him its purpose: “I have descended to protect the world and to destroy the wicked.” Then it gave Manu a great prophecy. In seven days the ocean would flood the whole earth. Manu was to take the seeds of all living things and the saptarṣis (seven ṛṣis), and board the great boat that would come to him.

When the ocean rose, the great golden fish came back. Manu tied the boat to its horn with a great serpent, and the fish pulled the vessel through the flood waters. Through the whole night of the pralaya of Brahmā, Manu sailed the waters. All that time Bhagavān Matsya, who was Bhagavān Viṣṇu himself, recited the purifying Matsya Purāṇa.

After the pralaya, Bhagavān Viṣṇu also took back the Vedas that the asura Hayagrīva had stolen from Brahmā, and the sacred knowledge was kept safe for the new creation (Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 2).

The Vaivasvata manvantara

The Vaivasvata manvantara is the present age, the seventh of the fourteen. Vaivasvata Manu himself presides over it and still holds supreme authority in this age. The saptarṣis of this manvantara guide spiritual knowledge for humanity.

The dynasties of this age, Solar and Lunar, trace their descent directly from the sons of Vaivasvata Manu. The Ikṣvāku line, the great Solar dynasty from which Bhagavān Rāma came, begins with Manu’s son Ikṣvāku. From Ikṣvāku came Kakutstha, from him Raghu, from Raghu Aja, and from Aja Daśaratha, the father of Bhagavān Rāma (Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 2, 5 and 18).

The Bhāgavata account: Satyavrata of the Draviḍa country

The eighth Skandha of the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa gives a fuller account of Vaivasvata Manu’s earlier birth as Satyavrata. He was a great rājarṣi (royal ṛṣi) of the Draviḍa country and a devotee of Nārāyaṇa. He lived by tapas, taking only water.

One day he was offering tarpaṇa at the Kṛtamālā river and found a small fish in his cupped hands. The fish grew in a kamaṇḍalu (water pot), in a well, and in lakes that grew larger. At last it asked to be put in the ocean, but there too it feared other creatures. At this point Satyavrata knew it: “You must be Nārāyaṇa himself.”

Bhagavān Matsya then told him that in seven days the pralaya would come and a great boat would arrive. He was to board it with the saptarṣis and the seeds of all plants. The divine fish would come, and he was to tie the boat to its horn with Vāsuki.

During the voyage through the pralaya, Satyavrata offered a stotra (hymn of praise) saying that Bhagavān Matsya is the supreme guru of gurus, the one who alone can undo the knot of ajñāna (ignorance). He said: “The ignorant who have an ignorant teacher are like the blind led by the blind. We have chosen the omniscient as our guru.”

Bhagavān Matsya taught Satyavrata the whole Matsya Purāṇa: ātmajñāna (knowledge of the ātmā), bhaktiyoga and karma. By the anugraha (grace) of Bhagavān Matsya, Satyavrata gained not only understanding but direct ātma-sākṣātkāra (direct sight of the ātmā). Hayagrīva was killed and the Vedas were restored. Satyavrata was then set up in the new kalpa as Vaivasvata Manu, the seventh Manu (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skandha 8, Chapter 24).

Vaivasvata Manu in the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa

The Matsya Mahā Purāṇa is framed as the teaching that Bhagavān Matsya gave to Manu during the pralaya. In its account, Manu is offering tarpaṇa at the sacred Kṛtamālā river when the fish appears in his cupped hands. As in the Bhāgavata account, the fish grows through several vessels: the kamaṇḍalu, a well, a tank, larger and larger lakes, and finally the ocean. In the ocean too it says it fears the great creatures of the sea.

Manu knows it is divine and calls the fish Nārāyaṇa. Bhagavān Matsya makes himself known and tells Manu to board the great nāvā (boat) with the seeds and the saptarṣis. He is to use Vāsuki as the rope that ties the vessel to the horn of Bhagavān Matsya (Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 1).

The whole text that follows is what Bhagavān Matsya taught Manu during the night of pralaya on the boat. It covers the creation of the world, the manvantaras, the royal dynasties, śrāddha (offerings to the ancestors) and the great narratives of the Yayāti cycle. In this way Manu received the grace of the Matsya avatāra, and he was also the one through whom all this sacred knowledge was kept for the present cycle of creation.

Chapter 9 lists all fourteen manvantaras with their Manus, devas, saptarṣis and royal sons, and shows Vaivasvata Manu as the seventh in this succession. Chapters 11 and 12 follow the Solar dynasty from Manu’s son Ikṣvāku down to Rāma, and the Lunar dynasty from Manu’s daughter Iḷā (Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 1–2, 9, 11–12).

Sources

• Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 2, 5, 18
• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skandha 8, Chapter 24
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 1–2, 9, 11–12