Matsya Purana

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The Matsya Purana (IAST Matsya Pura?a) is one of the eighteen major Puranas
(Mahapurana), and among the oldest and better preserved in the Puranic genre of
Sanskrit literature in Hinduism.[1][2] The text is a Vaishnavism text named after
the half-human and half-fish avatar of Vishnu.[1][3] However, the text has been
called by the 19th-century Sanskrit scholar Horace Hayman Wilson, although a
Shaivism (Shiva-related) work, it is not exclusively so; the text has also been
referred to one that simultaneously praises various Hindu gods and goddesses.[4][5]

The Matsya Purana has survived into the modern era in many versions, varying in the
details but almost all of the published versions have 291 chapters,[6] except the
Tamil language version, written in Grantha script, which has 172 chapters.[4]

The text is notable for providing one of earliest known definition of a Purana
genre of literature.[7] A history written with five characteristics is called a
Purana, states Matsya Purana, otherwise it is called Akhyana.[7] These five
characteristics are cosmogony describing its theory of primary creation of the
universe, chronological description of secondary creations wherein the universe
goes through the cycle of birth-life-death, genealogy and mythology of gods and
goddesses, Manvantaras, legends of kings and people including solar and lunar
dynasties.[8]

The Matsya Purana is also notable for being encyclopedic in the topics it covers.
[9] Along with the five topics the text defines a Purana to be, it includes
mythology, a guide for building art work such as paintings and sculpture, features
and design guidelines for temples, objects and house architecture (Vastu-shastra),
various types of Yoga, duties and ethics (Dharma) with multiple chapters on the
value of Dana (charity), both Shiva and Vishnu related festivals, geography
particularly around the Narmada river, pilgrimage, duties of a king and good
government and other topics.[1][10][11]

Contents [hide]
1 Date
2 Name and structure
3 Contents
3.1 Temple design
3.2 Tourist guides
3.3 Yoga and worship
4 See also
5 References
5.1 Bibliography
6 External links
Date[edit]
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 known for proposing ancient dates for Indian
literature.[4] Other scholars, such as Pandurang Vaman Kane, place the earliest
version of the text to between c. 200500 CE.[4][11][12] 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.[13]

Wendy Doniger dates the Matsya Purana to have been composed between 250 to 500 CE.
[14] 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.[1][15]

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[16]

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[16]
Name and structure[edit]

Vi??u in Matsya avatar (half fish, half human).

The text is named after the half-human (upper half), half-fish incarnation of Hindu
god Vishnu called Matsya.[1][17]

The Tamil version of the Matsya Purana has two sections, Purva (early) and Uttara
(later), and it consists of 172 chapters.[4][18] Other versions of the published
Matsya Purana manuscripts have 291 chapters.[6]

The text and tradition asserts that Matsya Purana had 20,000 verses.[1] However,
extant manuscripts contain between 13,000 to 15,000 verses.[1]

The Padma Purana categorizes Matsya Purana as a Tamas Purana,[19] or one that
glorifies Shiva or Agni.[7] Scholars consider the Sattva-Rajas-Tamas classification
as entirely fanciful and there is nothing in this text that actually justifies this
classification.[20]

Contents[edit]
It narrates the story of Matsya, the first of ten major Avatars of the Hindu god
Vishnu.[1] 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.[1][21]

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.
[22][5] The text includes a similar coverage on legends of god Shiva and god
Vishnu, and dedicates a section on goddess Shakti as well.[23] Chapters 54-102 of
the text discuss the significance and celebration of Hindu festivals and family
celebrations such as those related to the Sanskara (rite of passage).[23][24] 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.[23][25]

Temple design[edit]
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.[26][27] The Purana describes 20 styles of Hindu temples, such as Meru,
Mandara (later Mandir) and Kailasa designs.[28] The text lays out guidelines on
foundation, spaces within the core temple where people visit, and then the spire
(Vimana or Shikhara).[27]

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.[29][30]
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.[29][30]
The text highlights the square design principle, suggesting that the land and
design of large temples be set on 64 squares (mandala or yantra),[31][32] and
numerous other square grid designs such as the 16 square grid smaller temple.[32] 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.[27][33] 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.[34][27] 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.[27] 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.[35]