The Matsya Purana is one of the eighteen major Puranas (Mahapuranas), and among the oldest and better preserved in the Puranic genre of Sanskrit literature. The text is a Vaishnava text named after the fish avatar of Vishnu. 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. The text is notable for providing one of earliest known definition of a Purana genre of literature. A history written with five characteristics is called a Purana, states Matsya Purana, otherwise it is called Akhyana. 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.

The Matsya Purana is also notable for being encyclopedic in the topics it covers. 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 Dāna (charity), both Shiva and Vishnu related festivals, geography particularly around the Narmada river, pilgrimage, duties of a king and good government and other topics.

The text and tradition asserts that Matsya Purana had 20,000 verses. However, extant manuscripts contain between 13,000 to 15,000 verses. The Padma Purana categorizes Matsya Purana as a Tamas Purana, or one that glorifies Shiva or Agni.

The Purana narrates the story of Matsya, the first of ten major Avatars of Vishnu. The text describes a Pralaya - 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.

Temple design

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. The Purana describes 20 styles of Hindu temples, such as Meru, Mandara and Kailasa designs. The text lays out guidelines on foundation, spaces within the core temple where people visit, and then the spire (Vimana or Shikhara). The Matsya Purana in other chapters presents its theories on layout of towns and public works such as water reservoirs.

The text highlights the square design principle, suggesting that the land and design of large temples be set on 64 squares (mandala or yantra), and numerous other square grid designs such as the 16 square grid smaller temple. 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. 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. 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. 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.

The 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.

Pilgrimage sites

The Matsya Purana contains, like all Puranas, a collection of chapters called the Mahatmyas. The most detailed set, in chapters 189-194 of the Matsya Purana, is about sights, mythology and temples along the Narmada river region in modern Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. The Prayaga Mahatmya is another text, which covers chapters 103-112 of the Matsya Purana, with verses on the Kumbh mela.

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. The chapters 180-185 of the text present Avimukta Mahatmya, which is a pilgrimage guide for Benaras (Varanasi, Kashi).

Yoga and worship

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. 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.

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. Elsewhere, the Matsya Purana, in chapter 183, states that Yoga is of two forms – Saguna yoga and Nirguna yoga.

The Purana, after the usual prologue of Suta and the Rishis, opens with the account of the Matsya or "fish" Avatara of Vishnu, in which he preserves the king Manu, with the seeds of all things, in an ark, from the waters of that inundation which in the season of a Pralaya overspreads the world. While the ark floats, fastened to the fish, Manu enters into conversation with him; and his questions, and the replies of Vishnu, form the main substance of the compilation.

The first subject is the creation, which is that of Brahma and the patriarchs (Prajapatis). Some of the details are the usual ones; others are peculiar, especially those relating to the Pitris or progenitors. The regal dynasties are next described; and then follow chapters on the duties of the different orders. It is in relating those of the householder, in which the duty of making gifts to Brahmanas in comprehended, that we have the specification of the extent and subjects of the Puranas. Special duties of the householder - the Vratas or occasional acts of piety - are then described at considerable length, with legendary illustrations. the account of the universe is given in the usual detail. Shaiva legends ensue, as the destruction of Tripurasura; the war of the gods with Taraka and the Daityas, and the consequent birth of Kartikeya, with the various circumstances of Uma's birth and marriage, the burning of Kamadeva, and other events involved in that narrative; the destruction of the Asuras Maya and Andhaka; the origin of the Naitrs, and the like; interspersed with the Vaishnava legends of the Avataras. Some Mahatmyas are also introduced; one of which, Narmada Mahatmya, contains some interesting particulars. There are various chapters of law and morals; and one which furnishes directions for building houses, and making images. We then have an account of the kings of future periods; and the Purana concludes with a chapter on gifts.

The Matsya Purana is a miscellaneous compilation, but including in its contents the elements of a genuine Purana. It seems to have borrowed contents from other Puranas. The genealogical and historical chapters, as those of the Vishnu; and many chapters, as these on the Pitris and Sraddhas, are precisely the same as those of the Srishti Khanda of the Padma Purana. It has drawn largely also from the Mahabharata; among other instances, it quotes the story of Savitri, the devoted wife of Satyavan, which is given in the Matsya in the same manner, but considerably abridged.

The description of the Purana, which Matsya gives of itself, seems to be correct, and yet as regards the number of verses there seems to be a misstatement. Three copies of the manuscripts concur in all respects, and in containing no more than between fourteen and fifteen thousands shlokas; in this case, the Bhagavatam is nearer the truth when it assigns to it fourteen thousand.

The story of Matsya Avatara is told in the Mahabharata, from which it might be inferred that the Purana was prior to Mahabharata. This, of course, is consistent with the tradition that the Puranas were first composed by Vyasa; but there can be no doubt that the greater part of the Mahabharata is much older than any extant Purana. The present instance in itself is a proof: for the primitive simplicity with which the story of the fish Avatara is told in the Mahabharata is of a much more antique complexion that the mysticism and extravagance of the actual Matsya Purana. In the former, Manu collects the seeds of existing things in the ark, it is not said how; in the latter, he brings them all together by the power of Yoga. in the latter, the great serpents come to the king, to serve as cords wherewith to fasten the ark to the horn of the fish; in the former, a cable made of ropes is more intelligently employed for the purpose.

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