Week 12 Story: Matsya the Savior

Matsya, Wikicommons

Matsya the Savior

Matsya was the first incarnation of Vishnu. He was credited with saving Manu, the first human. What is not known about Matsya is that he is also credited with saving various different animals. Elephants are held very highly in cultural regards as they are very noble and smart animals. Matsya recognized this and decided right after he saved Manu from the floods that he must also save the elephants.
This is where the story picks up. Matsya had just finished rescuing Manu from a great flood and place him atop a mountain. This is when Manu mentioned to Matsya,
"I very grateful for my rescue, but I am sad to inform you that there is still a being that is very much in need of saving."
Matsya was startled by this retort and immediately question Matsya.
"What do you mean? I just saved you from the great flood! Who else could be in need of saving, you are the first man!"
Manu was hesitant to respond but replied. "What about the Noble elephants. They are always eager to aid me, I feel the favor should be returned, but I am obviously in no position to help!"
Matsya feeling the pain of Manu decided that he could not just leave the elephants to drown in the flood.
Matsya was now tasked with finding the elephants. He decided that the best place to find them would be at their favorite place, which was coincidentally atop a hill. Despite being on higher ground the hill was still in danger of flooding, and elephants are not known for their swimming ability. Matsya took off directly to find the elephants and they were right where he expected them to be. Now he was tasked with moving these thousand pound beasts. This seems like it would be a hard task, but Matsya is indeed an incarnation of Vishnu and posses great strength. Instead of picking up the elephants one by one and bringing them to safety Matsya elected to take the whole hill to safety.
Manu was surprised to say the least, but was even more grateful for the generosity Matsya showed him.


Authors Note:
The story that I originally started with was the one where Matsya saves Manu, the first human, from a flood. I decided that elephants would need saving too as they are very important in a lot of Jatakas that I read. I decided to merge these two ideas and got this story.