Manu- Hindu FigureMortal"Father of Mankind"
Also known as: Vaivasvata Manu, Satyavrata, Shraddhadeva, Śrāddhadeva, and मनु
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Description
A tiny fish begged a king for protection; the king saved it, and it grew until the ocean could barely contain it. When it revealed itself as Vishnu and warned of a coming flood, Manu built a boat that preserved the Vedas, the seven sages, and the seeds of all life.
Mythology & Lore
The Fish
Vaivasvata Manu, seventh in the line of progenitors who each govern an age of humanity, was known before the flood as Satyavrata. He was a king who practiced austerities along the banks of the Kritamala River.
The Shatapatha Brahmana tells how Manu found a tiny fish in the water he had cupped in his hands during his morning ablutions. The fish begged for protection from the larger fish that would devour it. Manu placed it in a jar. By the next day it had outgrown the jar. He moved it to a pond, then a lake, then the ocean. At each stage the fish grew until nothing but the sea could hold it. When it had grown to impossible size, it warned Manu that a flood would come in a specific year and told him to build a ship.
The Matsya Purana identifies the fish as the Matsya avatar of Vishnu, bearing a single golden horn.
The Voyage
When the waters rose, Manu loaded the boat with the Vedas and the seeds of every living species. The seven sages came aboard. The rain fell without ceasing. Rivers merged into a single expanse. Mountains vanished beneath the surface. Nothing remained above the water but the vessel and the vast fish before it.
Manu fastened the ship's rope to the horn of Matsya, and the avatar towed them through the deluge. The Bhagavata Purana records that during the voyage, with the world drowned beneath them, Matsya taught Manu sacred knowledge of dharma and the nature of the divine. The voyage lasted until the waters receded. Matsya guided the ship to the peak of the northern mountains, where Manu secured the vessel and waited for the earth to reemerge.
A New World
When dry land appeared, Manu descended from the mountain. The Shatapatha Brahmana preserves what followed: he performed a sacrifice, pouring oblations of clarified butter and sour milk into the waters. After a year, from these offerings arose a woman who identified herself as Ida. From their union humanity was born.
Through his son Ikshvaku, Manu established the Suryavansha, the Solar Dynasty whose line would produce Rama. Through Ila's union with Budha, son of the moon god Chandra, came Pururavas, founder of the Chandravansha, the Lunar Dynasty that would yield the Pandavas and Kauravas. The heroes of both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata descend from the man who rode out the flood.