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Home › Mantras › Matsya Mantra
Matsya Matsya Mantra: four-armed Vishnu as Matsya rising half fish from the sea at sunrise, King Satyavrata on the shore with palms joined
On the seashore King Satyavrata bows as the Fish he saved shows himself as Vishnu
Mantra · Vishnu as the Great Fish: Gayatri, Manu's mantra, Satyavrata's praise

Matsya Mantra

ॐ तत्पुरुषाय विद्महे महामीनाय धीमहि । तन्नो विष्णुः प्रचोदयात् ॥

Also known as Matsya Gayatri

In Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English — with the meaning of every word, and the one syllable most people pronounce wrongly.

Matsya HomamThe Matsya Homam, performed for youBook →

What the Matsya Mantra is

This Matsya Mantra page gathers the Matsya avatar mantra forms used for Vishnu as the Fish: a Gayatri, a name mantra, and two passages of the Bhagavata Purana. Mantra 1, the Matsya Gayatri, follows the three-line pattern shared by the Gayatris of Vishnu's avatars and names its subject Mahamina, the Great Fish; it is a devotional formula carried in printed editions, and no scripture is known to contain it. Mantra 2, "Om matsyaya namah", is the plain salutation to Matsya and also opens the common list of his 108 names. Mantra 3 and Verses 1-3 are Bhagavata Purana 5.18.25-28, where Manu hails the Great Fish as breath, vigour and strength, then recalls the flood he crossed with it. Verses 4-7 are Bhagavata 8.24.27-30, the four verses King Satyavrata speaks when he grasps that the fish is Narayana; these are often printed on their own as the Matsya Stotram.

A Fish in King Satyavrata's Cupped Hands

The Bhagavata Purana, Book 8, chapter 24, gives the account as Shuka's answer to King Parikshit, who asks why Vishnu would take a form as humble as a fish. In the age of the Chakshusha Manu, King Satyavrata, who lived on water alone as an austerity, stood in the Kritamala river making a water offering from his joined palms. A tiny fish appeared in them. When he let it go, it pleaded that bigger creatures of the river would eat it, so he carried it home in his water jug. By morning it filled the jug. He moved it to a well, then a pool, then a lake, and each time it outgrew the water within a day. At last he released it into the sea, and it protested that sharks lived there. The bewildered king asked what creature could swell by hundreds of miles in a single day, and then answered his own question with the four verses printed here as Verses 4-7. The fish replied that on the seventh day the three worlds would sink, and a boat would come for him, the seven sages and the seeds of every plant. Satyavrata later became Vaivasvata Manu, and Book 5 of the same Purana says he still worships the Fish in Ramyaka-varsha with Mantra 3. An older telling of the flood appears in the Shatapatha Brahmana (1.8.1).

The mantra, in six scripts

DevanagariSanskrit & Hindiॐ तत्पुरुषाय विद्महे महामीनाय धीमहि । तन्नो विष्णुः प्रचोदयात् ॥
Tamilௐ தத்புருஷாய வித்மஹே மஹாமீநாய தீமஹி । தந்நோ விஷ்ணுஃ ப்ரசோதயாத் ॥
Teluguఓం తత్పురుషాయ విద్మహే మహామీనాయ ధీమహి । తన్నో విష్ణుః ప్రచోదయాత్ ॥
Kannadaಓಂ ತತ್ಪುರುಷಾಯ ವಿದ್ಮಹೇ ಮಹಾಮೀನಾಯ ಧೀಮಹಿ । ತನ್ನೋ ವಿಷ್ಣುಃ ಪ್ರಚೋದಯಾತ್ ॥
Malayalamഓം തത്പുരുഷായ വിദ്മഹേ മഹാമീനായ ധീമഹി । തന്നോ വിഷ്ണുഃ പ്രചോദയാത് ॥
EnglishRoman transliterationoṃ tatpuruṣāya vidmahe mahāmīnāya dhīmahi | tanno viṣṇuḥ pracodayāt ||
“Om. May we come to know the Supreme Person; may we meditate on the Great Fish. May Vishnu inspire and guide our understanding.”
ॐ
oṃ — Om, the sacred syllable
तत्पुरुषाय
tatpuruṣāya — the Supreme Person
विद्महे
vidmahe — may we know
महामीनाय
mahāmīnāya — the Great Fish
धीमहि
dhīmahi — we meditate on
तन्नो
tanno — may that (one), us
विष्णुः
viṣṇuḥ — Vishnu
प्रचोदयात्
pracodayāt — inspire, guide

Matsya Mantra lyrics in full

Two short mantras, then Manu's prose mantra and three verses from Bhagavata Purana 5.18, and the four-verse Matsya Stotram from Bhagavata Purana 8.24.

All 10 verses, in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English, each with its meaning. Choose a script:

Download the Matsya Mantra PDFAll 10 verses with their meanings, in Sanskrit. Free to print and keep.

Mantra 1

ॐ तत्पुरुषाय विद्महे महामीनाय धीमहि ।
तन्नो विष्णुः प्रचोदयात् ॥

Om. May we come to know the Supreme Person; may we meditate on the Great Fish. May Vishnu inspire and guide our understanding.

Mantra 2

ॐ मत्स्याय नमः ॥

Om, salutations to Matsya, the Fish form of Vishnu.

Mantra 3

ॐ नमो भगवते मुख्यतमाय नमः सत्त्वाय प्राणायौजसे सहसे बलाय महामत्स्याय नम इति ॥

Om, salutations to the Lord, the foremost of all. Salutations to Him who is pure being, the life breath, vigour, endurance and strength; salutations to the Great Fish. This is the mantra with which Manu worships Matsya.

Verse 1

अन्तर्बहिश्चाखिललोकपालकैरदृष्टरूपो विचरस्युरुस्वनः ।
स ईश्वरस्त्वं य इदं वशेऽनयन्नाम्ना यथा दारुमयीं नरः स्त्रियम् ॥

Unseen in form by all the guardians of the worlds, You move within and outside every being, and Your great voice is the Veda. You are the Lord who keeps this whole world under Your control through Your word, as a man moves a wooden puppet.

Verse 2

यं लोकपालाः किल मत्सरज्वरा हित्वा यतन्तोऽपि पृथक्समेत्य च ।
पातुं न शेकुर्द्विपदश्चतुष्पदः सरीसृपं स्थाणु यदत्र दृश्यते ॥

The guardians of the worlds, burning with rivalry, set You aside and strove, each alone and all together, yet they could not protect what is seen here: the two-footed, the four-footed, the creeping and the unmoving.

Verse 3

भवान् युगान्तार्णव ऊर्मिमालिनि क्षोणीमिमामोषधिवीरुधां निधिम् ।
मया सहोरु क्रमतेऽज ओजसा तस्मै जगत्प्राणगणात्मने नम इति ॥

At the end of the age, on the ocean crowded with waves, You, the Unborn One, moved swiftly with Your strength, bearing this earth, the store of all herbs and plants, together with me. Salutations to You, the Self of all living beings in the world.

Verse 4

नूनं त्वं भगवान् साक्षाद्धरिर्नारायणोऽव्ययः ।
अनुग्रहाय भूतानां धत्से रूपं जलौकसाम् ॥

Surely You are the Lord Himself, Hari, the imperishable Narayana. Out of kindness to all beings You have taken the form of a creature of the waters.

Verse 5

नमस्ते पुरुषश्रेष्ठ स्थित्युत्पत्त्यप्ययेश्वर ।
भक्तानां नः प्रपन्नानां मुख्यो ह्यात्मगतिर्विभो ॥

Salutations to You, best of beings, Lord of the keeping, rising and dissolving of the world. O all-pervading One, You are the chief refuge and goal of us devotees who have come to You.

Verse 6

सर्वे लीलावतारास्ते भूतानां भूतिहेतवः ।
ज्ञातुमिच्छाम्यदो रूपं यदर्थं भवता धृतम् ॥

All Your playful descents are for the welfare of beings. I wish to know why You have taken this form.

Verse 7

न तेऽरविन्दाक्ष पदोपसर्पणं मृषा भवेत्सर्वसुहृत्प्रियात्मनः ।
यथेतरेषां पृथगात्मनां सतामदीदृशो यद्वपुरद्भुतं हि नः ॥

O lotus-eyed Lord, friend and dear Self of all, approaching Your feet can never be in vain, as it may be with other beings who stand apart from You. That is why You have shown us this wondrous form.

The syllable people get wrong

In matsyāya (Mantra 2), the t, s and y form one cluster: say "mat-SYAA-ya", keeping the s and gliding straight into the y, not "mat-si-ya" with an added vowel or "machh-ya" with the s dropped; the second a is long.

When the Matsya Mantra is chanted

Weekday. Thursday

Festival. Matsya Jayanti (Chaitra Shukla Tritiya)

Questions

No scripture is known to print it. The Gayatri on this page is a devotional formula built on the pattern used for Vishnu's avatars: "tatpurushaya vidmahe" to name the Supreme Person, a second line naming the avatar, here Mahamina, the Great Fish, and "tanno vishnuh pracodayat" to close. Other Gayatris for Matsya circulate with different wording; this page prints the form that recurs letter for letter in print.
It is Bhagavata Purana 8.24.27-30, printed here as Verses 4-7. King Satyavrata speaks these four verses the moment he realises that the fish outgrowing every vessel is Hari himself. He names Narayana, salutes him as master of the world's rising, keeping and dissolving, asks why this form was taken, and says in the last verse that approaching his feet is never in vain. Satyavrata's longer prayer later in the same chapter (8.24.46-53) is a separate passage and is not printed here.
Mantra 3 hails the Fish as sattva, pure being, and as prana, ojas, sahas and bala: life breath, vigour, endurance and strength. Verse 1 says the guardians of the worlds cannot see his form, yet he moves within and outside all beings and steers the world by his word as a man moves a wooden puppet. Verse 2 says those guardians, burning with rivalry, failed to protect the world without him. Verse 3 recalls the Fish carrying the earth, its herbs and Manu across the flood.
Yes. The Bhagavata Purana (8.24.11) says Satyavrata, the king of the Kritamala story, became Shraddhadeva, son of Vivasvan, and was given the office of Manu in the present age. Book 5 calls him the ruler of Ramyaka-varsha, where he still worships the Fish. So Verses 4-7 are his words before the flood, and Mantra 3 with Verses 1-3 his worship after it. Matsya's place as the first of the ten avatars is covered on the /mantra/dashavatara-stotram/ page.
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