The typical Puranic account of this Avatara is that of the "Bhagavata Purana" which is given by Sir William Jones in the "Asiatic Soc. Res." [**] With this the accounts in the other Puranas agree in the main: some are more condensed, others, as the "Matsya Purana," are considerably extended; for it was as the fish was guiding the vessel in which Manu was saved that Vishnu, in this form, is said to have dictated the whole of that Purana. All the Puranas agree in regarding the fish as an incarnation of Vishnu, and not of Brahma. Now follows the account from the Bhagavata:--

"Desiring the preservation of herds, Brahmans, genii, and virtuous men--of the Vedas, of law, and of precious things--the Lord of the Universe assumes many bodily shapes; but though he pervades, like the air, a variety of beings, yet he is himself unvaried, since he has no qualities subject to change. At the close of the last Kalpa there was a general destruction, occasioned by the sleeping Brahma, whence his creatures in different worlds

were drowned in a vast ocean. Brahma being inclined to slumber, desiring repose after a lapse of ages, the strong demon Hayagriva came near him, and stole the Vedas, which had flowed from his lips.

"When Hari, the preserver of the universe, discovered this deed of the prince of the Danavas, he took the shape of a minute fish, called Saphari. A holy king named Satyavrata then reigned--a servant of the spirit which moved on the waves; and so devout, that water was his only sustenance. He was the child of the Sun, and in the present Kalpa [**] is invested by Narayana with the office of Manu (i.e. the progenitor and lord of men), by the name of Sraddhadeva, or the god of obsequies. One day as he was making a libation in the river Kritamala, and held water in the palm of his hand, he perceived a small fish moving in it. The King of Dravira immediately dropped the fish into the river, together with the water which he had taken from it; when the Saphari thus addressed the benevolent monarch: 'How canst thou, O king, who showiest affection to the oppressed, leave me in this river water, where I am too weak to resist the monsters of the stream, who fill me with dread?' He, not knowing who had assumed the form of a fish, applied his mind to the preservation of the Saphari, both from good-nature and from regard to his own soul; and, having heard his very suppliant address, he kindly placed it under his protection in a small vase full of water; but in a single night its bulk was so increased that it could not be contained in the jar, and thus again addressed the illustrious prince: I am not pleased with living miserably in this little vase; make me a large mansion, where I may dwell in comfort.' The king, removing it thence, placed it in the water of