Matsya

deity water Hindu single tradition · 5

Matsya is the first avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu in the form of a fish. As an avatar, Matsya represents a divine incarnation taken by Vishnu.

↻ synthesized from 5 sources

When

First attested
400 BCE
Attested period
-400 – 400
Historical notes
The Mahabharata is estimated to have been compiled between 400 BCE and 400 CE.

Relationships

manifests as
Vishnu
aspect of
Vishnu

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“Matsya is the first avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu in the form of a fish.”

#4658 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“Matsya – An avatar of Lord Vishnu that is half-man half-fish.”

#4778 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Matsya (Hindu) – First Avatar of Vishnu in the form of a half-fish and half-man”

#5052 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Appearing in the forms of a swan [Hamsa], a tortoise [Kurma], a fish [Matsya], O foremost of regenerate ones, I shall then display myself as a boar [Varaha], then as a Man-lion (Nrisingha), then as a dwarf [Vamana], then as Rama of Bhrigu's race, then as Rama, the son of Dasaratha, then as Krishna the scion of the Sattwata race, and lastly as Kalki.”

#17596 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Matsya, the fish”

#22317 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5