Matsya Purana

The Matsya Purana, like all Puranas, was revised and updated continuously. The composition of the text may have begun in the last centuries of the 1st-millennium BCE, and its first version complete by about the 3rd-century of the common era, asserts Ramachandra Dikshitar.{{Sfn|Rocher|1986|p=199}} Other scholars, such as Pandurang Vaman Kane, place the earliest version of the text to between c. 200 and 500 CE.{{Sfn|Rocher|1986|p=199}}{{cite book|last=Bhardwaj|first=Surinder M.|title=Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India: A Study in Cultural Geography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6XJFokSJzEC&pg=PA67|year=1983|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-04951-2|page=67}}{{Sfn|Collins|1988|p=36}} The Matsya Purana, in chapter 53, includes a note stating that as a Purana, it is supposed to be edited and revised to remain useful to the society.{{Sfn|Gregory Bailey|2003|pp=162-163}}

Wendy Doniger dates the Matsya Purana to have been composed between 250 and 500 CE.{{Sfn|Collins|1988|p=36}} The general consensus among scholars is that Matsya Purana is among the older Purana, with its first version complete in the 3rd-century CE, but sections of it were routinely revised, deleted and expanded over the centuries, through the 2nd-millennium CE.{{Sfn|Dalal|2014|p=250}}{{Sfn|Rocher|1986|pp=199–200 with footnotes}}

The Matsya Purana, like all Puranas, has a complicated chronology. Dimmitt and van Buitenen state that each of the Puranas is encyclopedic in style, and it is difficult to ascertain when, where, why and by whom these were written:{{Sfn|Dimmitt|van Buitenen|2012|p=5}}

{{Quote|

As they exist today, the Puranas are a stratified literature. Each titled work consists of material that has grown by numerous accretions in successive historical eras. Thus no Purana has a single date of composition. (...) It is as if they were libraries to which new volumes have been continuously added, not necessarily at the end of the shelf, but randomly.

|Cornelia Dimmitt and J.A.B. van Buitenen|Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Puranas{{Sfn|Dimmitt|van Buitenen|2012|p=5}}}}

File:Matsya avatar.jpg]]

The text is named after the fish avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu called Matsya.{{Sfn|Dalal|2014|p=250}}{{cite book|last=Kemmerer|first=Lisa|title=Animals and World Religions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iFEL2yjkbAAC&pg=PA78|year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-991255-1|page=78}}

The Tamil version of the Matsya Purana has two sections, Purva (early) and Uttara (later), and it consists of 172 chapters.{{Sfn|Rocher|1986|p=199}}{{Sfn|K P Gietz|1992|pp=975-976 with note 5663}} Other versions of the published Matsya Purana manuscripts have 291 chapters.{{Sfn|Rocher|1986|p=197}}

The text and tradition asserts that Matsya Purana had 20,000 verses.{{Sfn|Dalal|2014|p=250}} However, extant manuscripts contain between 13,000 and 15,000 verses.{{Sfn|Dalal|2014|p=250}}

The Padma Purana categorizes Matsya Purana as a Tamas Purana,{{Sfn|Wilson|1864|p=xii}} or one that glorifies Shiva or Agni.{{Sfn|Bryant|2007|p=393 with note 17.3}} Scholars consider the Sattva-Rajas-Tamas classification as "entirely fanciful" and there is nothing in this text that actually justifies this classification.{{Sfn|Rocher|1986|p=21}}

It narrates the story of Matsya, the first of ten major Avatars of the Hindu god Vishnu.{{Sfn|Dalal|2014|p=250}} The text describes the mythology of a great flood, where in the world and humans led by Manu, the seeds of all plants and mobile living beings, as well as its knowledge books (Vedas) were saved by the Matsya avatar of Vishnu.{{Sfn|Dalal|2014|p=250}}{{Sfn|Dimmitt|van Buitenen|2012|pp=71–74}}

The Matsya Purana covers a diverse range of topics, many unrelated to Vishnu, and its mixed encyclopedic character led Horace Hayman Wilson – famous for his 19th-century Purana studies and translations, to state, "it is too mixed a character to be considered a genuine Purana" and largely a collection of miscellaneous topics.{{Sfn|Rocher|1986|p=198}}{{cite book|author=Srisa Chandra Vasu|title=The Sacred Books of the Hindus, Volume XVII: The Matsya Puranam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nckrAAAAMAAJ|year=1916|publisher=AMS Press|isbn=978-0-404-57817-6|pages=CV–CVI, Appendix X}} The text includes a similar coverage on legends of god Shiva and god Vishnu, and dedicates a section on goddess Shakti as well.{{Sfn|Winternitz|1922|p=549}} Chapters 54-102 of the text discuss the significance and celebration of Hindu festivals and family celebrations such as those related to the Samskara (rite of passage).{{Sfn|Winternitz|1922|p=549}}{{Sfn|Vasu|1916}} The chapters 215–227 of the text discuss its theories of the duties of a king and good government, while chapters 252–257 weave in a technical discussion of how to identify a stable soil for home construction, different architectural designs of a house along with construction-related ritual ceremonies.{{Sfn|Winternitz|1922|p=549}}[https://archive.org/stream/MatsyaPurana/matsya_purana#page/n193/mode/2up Matsya Purana] (Sanskrit manuscript), Chapters 252–257

The Matsya Purana, along with the texts such as Brihat Samhita, are among the oldest surviving texts with numerous sections on temple, sculpture and artwork designs.{{Sfn|Kramrisch|1976|pp= 46, 133–134, 140–141, 161 with footnotes}} The Purana describes 20 styles of Hindu temples, such as Meru, Mandara (later Mandir) and Kailasa designs.{{Sfn|Kramrisch|1976|p=161}} The text lays out guidelines on foundation, spaces within the core temple where people visit, and then the spire (Vimana or Shikhara).

{{Plain image with caption|image=9 Grid Pitha Mandala Hindu Temple Floor Plan Vastu Purusa Mandala Architecture.svg|caption=The text asserts square grid as ideal for a Hindu temple, discussing 8x8 squares grid mainly, but smaller 3x3 floor plan as well (above). The Matsya Purana in other chapters presents its theories on layout of towns and public works such as water reservoirs.{{cite book|author=Laxman S. Thakur|title=The Architectural Heritage of Himachal Pradesh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zb8YAAAAYAAJ|year=1996|publisher=Munshiram Manoharlal|isbn=978-81-215-0712-7}}|width=260px|align=right|caption position=bottom|triangle=triangle|triangle color=#ff6600}}

The text highlights the square design principle, suggesting that the land and design of large temples be set on 64 squares (mandala or yantra),{{Sfn|Kramrisch|1976|pp= 46–47 with footnotes}} and numerous other square grid designs such as the 16 square grid smaller temple.{{cite book|author=Michael Meister | editor=Gudrun Bühnemann|title=Maònòdalas and Yantras in the Hindu Traditions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kQf2m8VaC_oC|year=2003|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-12902-2|pages=256–257}} A temple's main entrance and the sanctum space should typically open east facing the sunrise, states the text, while the human body was the template of the temple, with Atman and Brahman (Purusha) as the resider in the heart, respectively.{{Sfn|Kramrisch|1976|pp= 25–26, 88–89 with footnotes}} The relative ratios, of various levels and various spaces, which the text asserts are naturally pleasing, such as those of entrance height, lengths and heights, placement of carvings are specified in chapters 253–269, as well as other sections such as chapters 58–65.{{Sfn|Kramrisch|1976|pp= 46, 133–134 with footnotes}} For example, the text suggests that the pillar inside the temple (stambha) be considered as of nine parts, with terms such as Padma, Kumbha, Antara and others, wherein the width of the pillar and each of these parts have certain ratios, and the structural features or carvings be laid out on these nine parts.{{cite book|author1=Vinayak Bharne|author2=Krupali Krusche|title=Rediscovering the Hindu Temple: The Sacred Architecture and Urbanism of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CGukBgAAQBAJ|year=2014|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=978-1-4438-6734-4|pages=117–121, 39–40}} The text, though named after an avatar of Vishnu, has numerous sections on the installation of Shiva Linga, while other chapters mention Vishnu murti, goddesses and other deities.{{Sfn|Kramrisch|1976|pp= 271–275 with footnotes}}

The design guidebooks embedded inside the Matsya Purana were likely suggestions, and not binding on those who sponsored or built the temples, states Michael Meister. However, field evidence suggests that the 1st-millennium Hindu temples across India, ones that have survived into the modern age, did adopt the square principle and the architecture approximately follows the general principles mention in old texts such as the Matsya Purana.

File:A Hindu temple, Amarkantak Madhya Pradesh India.jpga temples, located near the source of the Narmada river in eastern Madhya Pradesh.]]

The Matsya Purana contains, like all Puranas, a collection of chapters called the Mahatmya. These, states Ariel Glucklich, were ancient or medieval Indian "promotional works aimed at tourists from that era".{{cite book|author=Ariel Glucklich|title=The Strides of Vishnu : Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective: Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KtLScrjrWiAC|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-971825-2|pages=145–162|chapter=Maps and Myths in the Matsya Purana}}

The most detailed set, in chapters 189–194 of the Matsya Purana, is about sights, history and temples along the Narmada river region in modern Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.{{cite book|author=Surinder Mohan Bhardwaj|title=Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India: A Study in Cultural Geography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6XJFokSJzEC|year=1983|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-04951-2|pages=67–68}} The Prayaga Mahatmya is another tour guide in the text, which covers chapters 103–112 of the Matsya Purana, with verses on the Kumbh mela.{{Sfn|Rocher|1986|pp=71-72 with footnotes}}

Other Tirtha (pilgrimage) areas covered in the tour guide sections of this Purana, include those related to Goddesses (Shakti) in eastern and southern states of India.{{cite book|author=Surinder Mohan Bhardwaj|title=Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India: A Study in Cultural Geography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6XJFokSJzEC|year=1983|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-04951-2|pages=63–68}} The chapters 180-185 of the text present Avimukta Mahatmya, which is a travel guide for Benaras (Varanasi, Kashi).{{Sfn|Rocher|1986|pp=71-72 with footnotes}}{{Sfn|Winternitz|1922|p=549}}

{{see also | Bodhi tree | Sacred tree | Sacred groves of India |Sacred mountains | River#Sacred | l5= Sacred rivers }}

Matsya Purana has a shloka (hymn), which explains the importance of reverence of ecology in Hinduism. It states, "A pond equals ten wells, a reservoir equals ten ponds, while a son equals ten reservoirs, and a tree equals ten sons."[https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/haryana-mulls-giving-marks-to-class-12-students-for-planting-trees-101627242568655.html Haryana mulls giving marks to class 12 students for planting trees], Hindustan Times, 26 July 2021.

The text presents Yoga in many early and late chapters, with the description varying. In chapter 52, for example, the Matsya Purana states that Karma Yoga is more important than Jnana Yoga to a new Yogi, because Karma Yoga leads to Jnana Yoga, and Jnana Yoga never arises without Karma Yoga.{{Sfn|Vasu|1917|pp=158–160}} The text then describes eight essential spiritual qualities of a Karma Yogi in verse 52.8–52.10 – Clemency and non-injury to others and all living beings, forbearance, protection to those who seek aid in distress, freedom from envy, external and internal purification, calmness, non-miserliness in helping those who are distressed, and never hankering after another person's wealth or wife.{{Sfn|Vasu|1917|pp=159–161}}[https://archive.org/stream/MatsyaPurana/matsya_purana#page/n193/mode/2up Matsya Purana] (Sanskrit manuscript), Note: the text uses the term Karma and Kriya yoga interchangeably; see pages 184–185

Karma Yogi, asserts the text in verse 52.13–52.14, undertakes five worships every day – worship the Devas, worship one's parents and ancestors, feeding the poor and showing hospitality to guests, feeding animals and birds, and worship sages and one's teachers by reciting the Vedas.{{Sfn|Vasu|1916|pp=159–160}} Elsewhere, the Matsya Purana, in chapter 183, states that Yoga is of two forms – Saguna yoga and Nirguna yoga.{{Sfn|Vasu|1917|p=167}}

• Bhagavata Purana
• Itihasa
• Matsya Kingdom
• Vishnu Purana
• Upanishads

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|author=Gregory Bailey|editor=Arvind Sharma|title=The Study of Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=npCKSUUQYEIC|year=2003|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|isbn=978-1-57003-449-7}}
• {{cite book |first=Charles Dillard |last= Collins |title=The Iconography and Ritual of Siva at Elephanta: On Life, Illumination, and Being |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pQNi6kAGJQ4C&pg=PA36 | year=1988 | publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-88706-773-0}}
• {{cite book|last= Bryant |first=Edwin Francis | title=Krishna: A Sourcebook| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0z02cZe8PU8C|year= 2007| publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-803400-1}}
• {{cite book | last = Dimmitt | first = Cornelia | first2 = J. A. B. |last2 = van Buitenen | title = Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Puranas | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=re7CR2jKn3QC| publisher = Temple University Press (1st Edition: 1977) | year = 2012 | isbn =978-1-4399-0464-0 }}
• {{cite book|first= Stella| last= Kramrisch| year= 1976| title= The Hindu Temple, Volume 1 & 2 |isbn = 81-208-0223-3| publisher=Motilal Banarsidass}}
• {{cite book|first = Rosen|last= Dalal|year= 2014|title= Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide| publisher= Penguin|isbn= 978-8184752779| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DH0vmD8ghdMC }}
• {{cite book|author=K P Gietz|display-authors=etal|title=Epic and Puranic Bibliography (Up to 1985) Annoted and with Indexes: Part I: A - R, Part II: S - Z, Indexes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kgpLBpUCufwC&pg=PA870|year= 1992|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-03028-1}}
• {{Cite book|first=Ludo |last=Rocher| year= 1986| author-link= Ludo Rocher| title= The Puranas| publisher= Otto Harrassowitz Verlag| isbn= 978-3447025225}}
• {{Cite book|first = SC| last=Vasu|title = The Matsya Puranam, Part 1 of 3 (Chapters 1-128)| year=1916| publisher= New York: AMS Press (1974 Reprint)| hdl=2027/mdp.39015036357583|isbn= 0404578179}}
• {{Cite book|first = SC| last=Vasu|title = The Matsya Puranam, Part 2 of 3 (Chapters 129-199)| year=1917| publisher= New York: AMS Press (1974 Reprint)| hdl=2027/mdp.39015036357401|isbn= 0404578179}}
• {{cite book |last= Wilson |first=H. H. |author-link= Horace Hayman Wilson|title=The Vishnu Purana: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition (Volume 1: Introduction, Book I) |year=1864 | url=https://archive.org/stream/vishnupurnsyst01wils#page/n3/mode/2up | publisher=Read Country Books (reprinted in 2006) |isbn=1-84664-664-2}}
• {{cite book |last=Winternitz |first=Maurice |author-link= Moriz Winternitz |title=History of Indian Literature Vol 1 (Original in German, translated into English by VS Sarma, 1981) |year=1922 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass (Reprint 2010) |location=New Delhi | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JRfuJFRV_O8C |isbn= 978-8120802643 }}

• [https://archive.org/stream/MatsyaPurana/matsya_purana#page/n0/mode/2up Matsya Purana], Published in 1892, (in Sanskrit)

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Category:Puranas

Category:Sanskrit encyclopedias