THE MATSYA AVATAR

Matsya ,is the avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu in the form of a fish. Often listed as the first avatar in the lists of the ten primary avatars of Vishnu, Matsya is described to have rescued the first man, Manu, from a great deluge. Matsya is depicted as a giant fish, or anthropomorphically with a human torso connected to the rear half of a fish.

THE GREAT DELUGE

The story of a great Deluge is found in many civilizations across the earth. It is often related to the Genesis narrative of the flood and Noah's Ark. The fish motif reminds readers of the Biblical 'Jonah and the Whale' narrative as well; this fish narrative, as well as the saving of the scriptures from a demon, are specifically Hindu traditions of this style of the flood narrative. Similar flood myths also exist in tales from ancient Sumer and Babylonia, Greece, the Maya of Americas and the Yoruba of Africa.

Matsya temples are relatively rare, but the iconography is found in Hindu temple reliefs. 

Matsya is believed to symbolise the aquatic life as the first beings on earth. Another symbolic interpretation of the Matsya mythology is,  to consider Manu's boat to represent moksha (salvation), which helps one to cross over. The Himalayas are treated as a boundary between the earthly existence and land of salvation beyond. The protection of the fish and its horn represent the sacrifices that help guide Manu to salvation. Treated as a parable, the tale advises a good king should protect the weak from the mighty, reversing the "law of fishes" and uphold dharma, like Manu, defines an ideal king. In the tales where the demon hides the Vedas, dharma is threatened and Vishnu as the divine Saviour, rescues dharma, aided by his earthly counterpart, Manu - the king.

MATSYA PURANA

The Matsya Purana evolves the legend further, by identifying the fish-savior (Matsya) with Vishnu instead of Brahma.The Purana derives its name from Matsya.

The Satya Yuga was about to end and a great flood was to come and destroy all the life on earth to start afresh for the next Yuga. Lord Brahma after a day full of creation, was tired. He wanted to go to sleep and was soon snoring loudly.

While Lord Brahma was sleeping an asura Hayagriva emerged from Brahma’s nose. With Brahma asleep, Hayagriva realized that it was the right time to take in all the knowledge of the Vedas. Hayagriva concentrated and soon absorbed the knowledge in the Vedas. He then hid deep inside the ocean, thinking that nobody would find him there.

Lord Vishnu saw this and was worried. If the Vedas were stolen by the asura, the knowledge of the Vedas could not be passed on to the Next Yuga. As a Preserver, it was his job to make sure the knowledge survived to the next Yuga.

The legend  states that when a little fish appeared to Manu, he recognizes Vishnu Vasudeva in the fish. The fish tells him about the impending fiery end of kalpa accompanied with a deluge. The fish once again has a horn, but Manu does not need to build a boat or ship in this Purana. The gods build it. They build it big enough to carry and save all life forms, and Manu needs to just carry all types of grain seeds to produce food for everyone after the deluge is over. When the great flood begins, Manu ties the Ananta Sesha (cosmic serpent) to the fish's horn. 

One half of the fish’s work completed, the fish went to the other side to complete the other reason for the incarnation. On the other end of the ocean, the fish saw Hayagriva guarding the Vedas. Seeing the huge fish, Hayagriva was terrified. What a huge fish…However no sooner than he had thought this, the fish attacked him. The fish was so huge, that a single push sent the asura reeling. Still dazed Hayagriva tried fighting the fish, but the fish was huge and powerful.

After a brief and futile struggle, the asura was dead. Once the asura was dead, the vedas imbibed by him went back to Lord Brahma, who was still asleep.

VISHNU: THE SAVIOUR

Vishnu is one of the principal deities of Hinduism.He is revered as the Preserver in the Holy Trinity along with Brahma and Shiva.

In Vaishnavism, Vishnu is identical to the formless metaphysical concept called Brahman, the supreme, the Svayam Bhagavan, who takes various avatars or incarnations, as "the preserver, protector" whenever the world is threatened with evil, chaos, and destructive forces. His avatars most notably include Rama in the Ramayana and Krishna in the Mahabharata. He is also known as Narayana, Jagannath, Vasudeva, Vithoba, and Hari. 

In Hindu iconography, Vishnu is usually depicted as a youth with a dark, or pale blue complexion and having four arms. He holds a padma (lotus flower) in his lower left hand, Kaumodaki gada (mace) in his lower right hand, Panchajanya shankha (conch) in his upper left hand and the Sudarshana Chakra (discus) in his upper right hand.

DASHAVATARA

The Vishnu avatars appear in Hindu mythology whenever the cosmos is in crisis, typically because the evil has grown stronger and has thrown the cosmos out of its balance.The avatar then appears in a material form, to destroy evil and its sources, and restore the cosmic balance between the ever-present forces of good and evil.

The most known and celebrated avatars of Vishnu, within the Vaishnavism traditions of Hinduism, are Krishna and Rama. These names have extensive literature associated with them, each has its own characteristics, legends and associated arts. The Mahabharata, the Krishna Charit Manas for example, includes Krishna, while the Ramayana, Ram Charit Manas includes Rama.


The Bhagavata Purana describes Vishnu's avatars as innumerable, though ten of his incarnations (Dashavatara), are celebrated therein as his major appearances. The ten major Vishnu avatars are mentioned in the Agni Purana, the Garuda Purana and the Bhagavata Purana. Thirty-nine avatars are mentioned in the Pancharatra. The commonly accepted number of ten avatars for Vishnu was fixed well before the 10th century CE.


The ten best-known avatars of Vishnu are collectively known as the Dashavatara (a Sanskrit compound meaning "ten avatars"). Five different lists are included in the Bhagavata Purana, where the difference is in the sequence of the names. Freda Matchett states that this re-sequencing by the composers may be intentional, so as to avoid implying priority or placing something definitive and limitation to the abstract.

In the next post I will be mentioning the first of the ten avatars.

Veerbhadra

Lord Shiva is one of the primary deities of Hinduism, one of the Trinity along with Lords Vishnu and Brahma. He is worshipped by Hindus who greatly revere him and are eager to seek his blessings.

Veerbhadra was a powerful being created from Lord Shiva's lock of hair to destroy the yagna of Daksha Prajapati, where Sati,Shiva's spouse, and the latter's daughter, had committed suicide, unable to bear the insults heaped on her husband.This manifestation was  fearsome in appearance and larger than life, while also being more powerful than all the Gods.

Daksha Prajapati was a son of Lord Brahma and the father of many daughters, including Dakshayini or Sati.

Dakshayini had a wish to get married to Lord Shiva but Daksha objected as he didn’t respect Lord Shiva as much as the other Gods.

Daksha held a Yagna where he invited all the Devas instead of Lord Shiva, who Daksha considered unsuitable and unworthy of worship.He insulted the Lord and Dakshayani ,unable to tolerate the humiliation,  jumped into the sacrificial fire and  ended her life.
When the news of Sati's  demise, reached  Lord Shiva, he was enraged and from a lock of his hair,created a fearsome being  named Veerbhadra, who totally destroyed Daksha’s Yagna, trampled on Indra, broke Yama’s staff and killed Daksha by beheading him.

After this incident, Lord Brahma himself prayed to Lord Shiva to forgive all the Gods and restore Daksha’s life. Lord Shiva consented and proceeded to revive Daksha , and replaced his head with that of a goat, which symbolised the fact that all who disrespected Lord Shiva were not fit to carry a human head.,  He also restored to life all who had been killed in the battle undoing all the damage that had been  caused by his followers

Then Lord Shiva was duly worshipped by all the Gods who invoked his blessings and benediction on them and all beings in the universe .This is, in brief, the story of  of Lord Shiva and his Veerbhadra 

The Story of Rishi Ashtavakra

Ashtavakra is a revered Vedic sage in Hinduism. His name literally means "eight bends", reflecting the eight physical handicaps he was born with. His maternal grandfather was the Vedic sage Aruni, his parents were both Vedic students at Aruni's school. Ashtavakra studied, became a sage and a celebrated character in the mythologies of the Hindu Epics and Puranas.

Little is known about the life or century in which Ashtavakra actually lived, except for the mythologies found in the major Indian Epics (the Ramayana and the Mahabharata) and the Puranas. 

 In the Aranya Kanda of Ramayana, the demon Kabhanda narrates his story to Rama and Lakshmana, in which he says that he was a Gandharva earlier who was cursed by Ashtavakra to become a demon when he laughed on seeing him (Ashtavakra). When the Gandharva then bowed down to Ashtavakra, Ashtavakra said that he would be released from the curse by Rama in Treta Yuga.

In the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata, the legend of Aṣṭāvakra is described in greater detail. On losing the game of dice with the Kauravas, the five Pandava princes and Draupadi are exiled for twelve years. On their pilgrimage, they meet the sage Lomaśa, and he narrates to the Pāṇḍava princes the legend of Aṣṭāvakra, over three chapters of Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata.
Ashtavakra is an unconventional and a lesser known person who has played a major role in shaping our culture and history...
The Ashtavakra Gita is also one of the major texts which is written as a dialogue between Rishi Ashtavakra and Rajrishi Janaka..

THE SATI PRATHA

A wife was burnt alive at the funeral pyre of her dead husband! Sounds gruesome, doesn’t it? Yet this barbaric practice of Sati had been prevalent in orthodox Hindu society for many centuries. This was based on a warped notion that a woman had no existence once her husband had died. Millions of women were consigned to an untimely and horrific death due to the pressures of a rigidly patriarchal system.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, after the coming of colonial rulers in India they were horrified to witness such a ritual. This was as the Sati Practice violated their faith in the Christian ethics which believes  that all life howsoever insignificant is precious and a gift of God.

Raja Ramohan Roy

 It was the prominent social reformer, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who  first  protested against this custom. Horrified and deeply pained at witnessing his own sister-in -law committing ritual suicide at his brother’s pyre, he continued with his propaganda against the custom in spite of protests from orthodox Hindus. Finally, he succeeded in his mission when Lord William Bentinck, the then Governor General of India, passed a law in 1829 abolishing the custom of Sati.

The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act 1987

 According to this law, the practice of Sati became illegal and punishable as culpable homicide. Slowly but evidently over the next few decades this practice was socially discarded.
Despite all the efforts  made by independent India isolated cases were still reported. In 1987, a case of Sati, leading to a nation wide furore and demand for stringent action ,was reported from Deorala, Rajasthan. A young woman named Roop Kanwar was reportedly forced to immolate herself at the funeral pyre of her dead husband. This incident received wide publicity and as a response to the public outcry, the Government of India passed The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987.With this act the cruel practice of Sati was banned for ever from the Indian soil.