Matsya

After finishing his duties as a King. Satyavrata lived a quiet life with his wife on the banks of a river. Once while bathing in the river he came upon a little fish who could speak. "Save me from the big fish, O mighty king, and i will save the world", he said. Feeling sorry for the small fish who talked big, Satyavrata took it out of the river and gave it shelter in his pot. So the Fish had to be moved to a large urn.

As the days passed, the fish kept growing in size. Satyavrata had to move it from the large urn to a pond, from the pond to a river and from the river to the sea. As the fish went across the ocean, beyond the horizon, it told Satyavrata," Soon the heavens will burst and torrential rains will flood the earth. The sea will rise and submerge the land. When this happens collect the seed of every plant and a pair of every animal and wait for me on a boat with your wife."

Realizing, this was no ordinary fish, but Vishnu himself, Satyavrata did as he was told. The great fish appeared before him, bigger than before, with a horn on its headd. Satyavrata tied his boat to the horn with Adi Sesha as the rope. The fish then towed the boat through great deluge to the only piece of dry land, the peak of Mount Mandara. There Satyavrata and his wife waited for the waters to recede.

While the seed of every plant and a pair of all animals would establish the new world.

Matsya is the avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu in the form of a fish. Often listed as the first avatar of in the lists of the ten primary avatars of Vishnu. Matsya is described to have rescued the first man. Matsya is depicted in two forms: as a zoomorphic fish or in an anthropomorphic form. In the latter form, the upper half is that of the four-armed man and the lower half is a fish. The upper half resembles Vishnu and wears traditional oranaments and the kirita-makuta as worn by Vishnu.