Avatar 1 of 10 · Satya Yuga · सत्य युग
Matsya Avatar · The Fish
मत्स्य अवतार · मछली
The fish who carried the Vedas, the seeds of life and the seven sages safely through the great flood.
वह मछली जिसने महाप्रलय में वेदों, जीवन के बीजों और सप्तऋषियों को सुरक्षित पार कराया।
The story of Matsya · मत्स्य की कथा
The Fish in the King’s Palms
King Satyavrata, a gentle ruler known for his kindness, stood in the river at dawn to offer water to the Sun. As he lifted his cupped hands, he found a tiny fish trembling in them. “Please don’t throw me back,” it said. “The big fish will swallow me.”
The king carried it home in a small pot. By morning it had outgrown the pot. He moved it to a well, then a pond, then a lake, and each time it grew to fill its new home. When at last he released it into the ocean and it spread across the waves, Satyavrata folded his hands. “No ordinary fish grows like this. Who are you?”
“In seven days,” the fish replied, “the three worlds will sink beneath a great flood. A boat will come to you. Gather the seeds of every plant, pairs of every creature, and the seven sages, and climb aboard. I will be there.”
On the seventh day the rain came without end. The boat arrived as promised, and the king filled it with everything he had been asked to save. Then a golden fish, vast as a mountain and bearing a single great horn, rose from the dark water. Using the serpent Vasuki as a rope, they tied the boat to that horn, and the fish drew them through storm and darkness.
Through the long night of the flood, the fish taught the king the deepest truths of the Self, so that wisdom too would survive. When the waters fell, Satyavrata stepped onto new land as Manu, the father of a new humanity, carrying the Vedas, the seeds of life, and a heart made wise.
The lesson
Protect what is small and helpless; it may be carrying the whole world.
Story: Retold from the Matsya Purana and the Bhagavata Purana (8.24)
In the scriptures · शास्त्रों में
The original verses, with their romanisation and our own English and Hindi translation.
रूपं स जगृहे मात्स्यं चाक्षुषोदधिसम्प्लवे । नाव्यारोप्य महीमय्यामपाद्वैवस्वतं मनुम् ॥
rūpaṃ sa jagṛhe mātsyaṃ cākṣuṣodadhisamplave nāvyāropya mahīmayyāmapādvaivasvataṃ manum
When the ocean flooded at the end of the Chakshusha age, He took the form of a fish, placed Vaivasvata Manu in a boat made of the earth, and protected him.
चाक्षुष मन्वंतर के अंत में जब समुद्र में प्रलय आया, तब उन्होंने मत्स्य रूप धारण किया और वैवस्वत मनु को पृथ्वी रूपी नौका पर बिठाकर उनकी रक्षा की।
प्रलयपयोधिजले धृतवानसि वेदम् । विहितवहित्रचरित्रमखेदम् ॥ केशव धृतमीनशरीर जय जगदीश हरे ॥
pralayapayodhijale dhṛtavānasi vedam vihitavahitracaritramakhedam keśava dhṛtamīnaśarīra jaya jagadīśa hare
In the waters of the great dissolution you held the Vedas safe, steering the boat without tiring. O Keshava, who took the body of a fish: victory to you, Hari, lord of the world!
प्रलय के जल में आपने वेदों को धारण किया और बिना थके नौका को पार लगाया। हे केशव, मत्स्य शरीर धारण करने वाले जगदीश हरि, आपकी जय हो!