Manu Vaivasvata

During ten thousand years of austerities at Badari, Vaivasvata Manu encountered a small fish on the banks of the Virini. It feared the larger fish and asked him for protection. He lifted the fish clear of the river and kept it in a water-filled vessel. He cared for it, and in time it became too large for the pot. He moved it to a pond, then to the Ganga when it outgrew the pond, and finally carried it to the ocean. Though immense, the fish remained easy for him to carry.

In the ocean the fish told Manu that destruction threatened everything that moved or stood still. It instructed him to build a sturdy boat, attach a rope, collect the seeds it had named, and bring the seven sages aboard. Manu followed these directions. When the flood came, he waited in the boat. The fish returned with a horn, and Manu fastened the rope to it. The fish pulled the boat over the roaring waters. The earth and directions disappeared beneath the flood, leaving only the seven sages, Manu and the fish visible. After many years, the fish drew the boat to the highest peak of the Himalayas and told the sages to moor it there. They tied it to the peak, which became known as Nau-bandhana.

When the boat was secure, the fish addressed the sages and identified itself as Prajapati Brahma. It said it had saved them in fish form and declared that Manu would create all beings and worlds. The fish disappeared. Manu then desired to create, undertook great austerities, and succeeded in creating all beings.