Manu and the Fish

One morning they brought Manu water to wash his hands, as people still do. While he was washing, a fish came into his hands.

It was a very small fish, and it spoke.

"Look after me," it said, "and I will save you."

"Save me from what?" asked Manu.

"A flood is coming that will carry away all these creatures. I will save you from that."

Manu looked at the little thing in his palms. "And how am I to look after you?"

"While we are small we are in great danger," said the fish. "Fish eat fish. Keep me in a jar first. When I grow too big for the jar, dig a pit and keep me in that. When I grow too big for the pit, take me down to the sea. By then nothing will be able to harm me."

So Manu kept it in a jar, and it grew. He dug a pit for it, and it grew. It became a jhasha, the Brahmana says, the largest of all fish. Before he took it to the sea it told him one thing more.

"In such and such a year the flood will come. Build a ship and watch for me. When the water rises, go on board, and I will save you."

Manu carried the fish down to the sea and let it go.

In the year the fish had named, Manu built a ship. The water rose, and he went on board. Then the fish came swimming up to him. It had a horn, and Manu tied the ship's rope to the horn.

The fish pulled. It drew the ship swiftly across the flood, all the way up to the northern mountain.

"I have saved you," said the fish. "Tie the ship to a tree. But take care that the water does not cut you off while you are up on the mountain. As it goes down, follow it down, a little at a time."

Manu did as he was told. He came down step by step behind the sinking water, and the Brahmana says that slope of the northern mountain is still called Manu's Descent.

The flood had swept away every living creature. Manu alone was left.

The Brahmana says nothing more about the fish. It does not say where the fish went, and it never says who the fish was.

Manu wanted children, and there was nobody else in the world. He went on worshipping and living hard, and he made an offering into the waters: clarified butter, sour milk, whey and curds.

In a year a woman rose out of that offering. She came up firm and whole, and butter gathered in her footprints as she walked.

The gods Mitra and Varuna met her on the way. "Who are you?" they asked.

"Manu's daughter."

"Say that you are ours."

"No," she said. "I belong to the one who brought me into being." And she walked on until she came to Manu.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Your daughter."

"How are you my daughter, lady?"

"You made an offering in the waters, of butter and sour milk and whey and curds. You brought me into being with that. I am the blessing. Use me at the sacrifice, and you will be rich in children and in cattle. Whatever you ask through me will be given."

Manu did so. He went on worshipping with her beside him, and the Brahmana says that through her he brought forth this race of ours, which is called the race of Manu.

In the Mahabharata the sage Markandeya tells the story to the Pandavas in the forest, and his Manu is a great ascetic. He was the son of Vivasvat, and he had been standing on one leg with his arm raised, in the jujube forest of Vishala, for ten thousand years.

One day a little fish came to the bank of the river Chirini where he stood, his hair matted and his clothes wet.

"Sir, I am a helpless small fish," it said. "The big fish eat the small ones. That is the law among us. Protect me, and I will repay you."

Manu was moved by pity. He lifted it out with his own hands and put it in an earthen jar, and tended it like a child. It outgrew the jar, so he carried it to a great pond. It outgrew the pond, and he took it to the river Ganga. At last it said, "I cannot move in the Ganga. Take me to the sea."

When he set it in the sea it smiled and said, "The time for the washing of the world is near. Build a strong ship with a long rope. Go aboard with the seven sages, and take the seeds of every kind, each stored apart. I will come to you with a horn on my head. You will know me by it."

"I do not doubt you," said Manu. "I will do it."

The flood came. Manu thought of the fish, and it rose out of the water like a rock, horned. He threw the loop of the rope over its horn. For many years it towed them through a sea without shores, while the ship reeled in the storm and no land or direction could be seen.

Finally it brought them to the highest peak of the Himalaya. "Tie your ship here," it said, and Markandeya adds that the peak is still called Naubandhana, the place where the ship was tied.

Then the fish spoke to the sages. "I am Brahma, the lord of creatures. There is none greater than I. In the shape of a fish I have saved you. Manu will now create all beings again, gods, Asuras and men."

Then it vanished, and Manu took up the work.