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In Hindu mythology, Matsya (Sanskrit for fish) was the first avatar of Vishnu.
According to legend, the king Manu was washing his hands in a river when a little fish swam into his hands and begged him to save it. He put it in a jar, which it soon outgrew; he successively moved it to a tank, a river and then the ocean. The fish then warned him that a Great Flood would occur in a week that would destroy all life. Manu therefore built a boat which the fish towed to a mountaintop when the flood came, and thus he survived along with some "seeds of life" to re-establish life on earth.
A statue in Keshava Temple[1] (http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/india/mysore/kes01.html), Somnathpur, Karnataka depicts Matsya.
Compare Noah's Ark.
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