Matsya Nyay Pranali

 

Loosely translated Matsya Nyay Pranali means ‘The Law of the Jungle’ in English.

Matsya means Fish and Nyay Pranali means law. It refers to how the natural world operates where the small are eaten by the big. The phrase is also closely associated with the first Avatar of Vishnu, the Matsyavatar.

Matsyavatar is quite close to the legend of Noah’s Ark. Before the advent of civilized code of conduct, people lived without a sense of law. The world could not function like this, therefore the Trinity (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiv) decided to dissolve the world to start it afresh. They however needed a righteous man who could help set up civilization again. King Manu was such a man.

To test Manu, Vishnu took the form of a small fish and approached Manu as he was offering his morning prayers standing in a river. The tiny fish approached Manu and asked him to save its life. The law of nature has no place for such a request. A small fish exists to be fodder for a bigger fish. Manu however was overcome by compassion so he took the little fish in his palm and took it back to his palace where it was promptly put in a jar. Over night the fish grew and the pot became too small for it. Manu ordered the fish to be transferred to a bigger tank, the fish outgrew this as well in a matter of hours. The fish was then transferred to a pond, then a river and eventually to a sea. Realizing that this was no ordinary fish, Manu requested it to reveal its true form to him. Vishnu appears before Manu and tells him that a great flood would soon engulf the earth. To ensure the continuation of the world, he was told to collect seeds of all kinds and a pair of all kinds of animals and build a great ark within 7 days. On the 8^th day it started raining heavily. Vishnu appears again in the form of a giant fish and towed the ark away to the top of Himalaya which was the only piece of land not submerged in water. Manu becomes the progenitor of humanity. By showing compassion and using his power of intellect to discriminate between situations, Manu had shown himself to be an apt person for the establishment of codes of a more civilized world. A world where the weak could live without fear, a civilized world which unlike the natural world would give protection even to the weakest

There is a catch however. The moment the fish was big enough to not be threatened by other fish, Manu should have stopped giving it protection. By his incessant support to the fish, Manu had inadvertently brought the flood to happen. The Pralaya or Deluge came to pass because it had to, but there was an important lesson here for Manu. Only the weak need to be protected. When the weak no longer remain weak any support only goes on to feed the natural hunger for power and privilege all humans have. To know when to stop is very important. This theme is revisited when we analyse the ambition of Duryodhana and Dhritrashtra. To begin with it seems that Dhritrashtra has been unjustly not allowed to become the king, but as he is accommodated further, his insatiable lust for power infects his son and eventually leads to the Kurukshetra war.  

Another reason why I have mentioned this story here is because as the God responsible for the preservation of the world, Vishnu keeps on taking avatars. Matsyavatar was the first Vishnu Avatar and Krishna was the 9^th Vishnu Avatar. Also the instance  

Although Matsya Nyay Pranali is used elsewhere in Hindu philosophy too but I would like to acknowledge Devdutt Pattnaik’s explanation on this. I found a better understanding of the concept through reading his work.