Matsya



Matsya

Matsya is the 1st avatar of lord Vishnu; he is half man half fish. His upper body is a man and his lower body is a fish. He has four arms and is blue also referred as mina. In some pictures he holds his symbols, in two hands he holds the conch shell and a wheel, and in the other two he holds a lotus flower and a mace. Matsya never made it the stages of worship; he has no temples or of him at all. “The word Matsya means fish. Usually Vishnu is regarded as having nine incarnations, with the tenth one Kalki, due to come in the future.”(1) These are the ten avatars of Vishnu 1. Matsya 2 Kurma 3 Varaha 4 Nrisimha 5 Vamaha 6 Parashurama 7 Rama 8 Krishna 9 Buddha 10 Kalki

Here’s a myth about Matsya. “Once while lord Brahma was sleeping and the Vedas were not under protection, the demon Hayagriva stole them. According to the Matsya Purana, the king of pre-ancient Dravida and a devotee of Vishnu, Satyavrata who later was known as Manu was washing his hands in a river when a little fish swan into his hands and pleaded with him to save its life. He put it in a jar, which it soon outgrew. He then moved it to a tank, a river and then finally the ocean but to no avail. The fish then revealed he to be Vishnu and told him that a deluge would occur within seven days that would destroy all life. Therefore, Satyarata was instructed to take all medicinal herbs, all the varieties of seeds, and accompanied by the seven saints along with the serpent Vasuki and other animals. Then to restore the Vedas Matsya dived into the ocean to kill Hayagriva and a battle ensued between Vishnu as Matsya and the demon Hayagriva was defeated and the Vedas were restored. The deluge occurred and the lord reappeared as promised and advised Satyavrata to board the boat and fasten the serpent Vasuki to his horn as a rope to the boat.”(2) I got the myth from ([|www.enwikipedia.org)2] I got the other info from (www.indiadivine.org) (1) For more information on Matsya click here

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 * Matsya is the 1st avatar of lord Vishnu
 * He has four symbols lotus flower, mace, wheel, and conch shell.