The Matsya Purana is the sixteenth among the eighteen Puranas. The subject of this Purana is the teachings of Manu by Matsya, the divine incarnation of Vishnu. The Matsya Purana deals with Matsya, the first incarnation of Lord Vishnu on earth. The chief characters of this Purana are the Lord Matsya, the incarnation of Vishnu and the Emperor of Dravida Satyavrata, who is known as Manu. Manu is also venerated as the father of the Aryans. Several subjects like Jainamata (religion of Jainism), Buddha Mata (Buddhism), Natyasastra (histrionics) and Andhraraja vamsa (kingdom and kings of Andhra) are discussed in this book. It contains 14,000 verses, which are all in the form of conversation, while Matsya was teaching Manu about the significance of divinity, greatness of Lord Vishnu and the path of virtue. As it has been said, if the Matsya Purana is to be given as a gift along with a golden image of a fish at the time of Visuva, it is considered auspicious. The Matsya Purana is named so because it was first recited by Vishnu in his Matsya incarnation to Manu.

The Matsya Puranas themselves describes the five characteristics (pancha Lakshana) that a text must satisfy before being classified as a Maha Purana. The Matsya Purana are also concerned with the original creation of the universe (Sarga), the periodical process of destruction and re-creation (Pratisarga), the various eras (Manvantara), the histories of the solar dynasty (Surya Vamsha), and lunar dynasty (Chandra Vamsha) and royal genealogies (Vamshanucharita).

The Matsya Purana deals with the stories related to the wisdom of Matsya. As the verses depicts during the period of Mahapralaya, Lord Vishnu had taken Matsya avatar (fish incarnation) to save the seeds of all lives and Manu.

The general contents of the Matsya Purana are description of the greatness of Narsimh incarnation, description of all the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu, greatness of fasting like Anant Tritiya and the places of pilgrimage like Prayag, tales of Chandra Vansh, Surya Vansh and Kuru Vansh and kings like Yayati and Kartveerya, description of the Kalpa and yugas, appearance of idols, appearance and construction of Deva-mandapa (canopy for the deities), tale of Savitri and Satyavan, results of auspicious and inauspicious motion of the planets, birth of Parvati, immolation of Madan (Kamadeva), wedding of Lord Shiva with Parvati, birth of Kartikeya, duties of a king, description of future kings.

The story of the Matsya Purana begins with the king Manu, passing his days in observing "dhyana" in his hermitage. A Surya Vamshi Manu handed over the kingdom to his son Iksvaku and went to the foothills of Malaya and performed tapasya in order to please Brahma. Pleased with his prayers Brahma appeared and gave him the holy blessing. King Manu was blessed with the power that he will be the savior of the world when the Mahapralaya will come to destroy it. After the passing of several days, Manu was performing rituals in the pond near his hermitage. While he immersed his hands in the water he found a minnow (shafari) swimming around in the water. Manu did not kill it but kept it in his water pot or kamandalu. But the minnow started to grow and within a day the water pot seemed so small. The fish started growing and everywhere Manu kept it (vat, pond, river and finally the ocean) seemed too small for the fish. Surprisingly overwhelmed Manu understands that it was not a mere fish. Unsure of the fact that whether it`s a demon deluding him, Manu came to know that it was the incarnation of Lord Vishnu himself on the earth. Then the Matsya incarnation of Lord Vishnu revealed the truth and told that the earth would soon be flooded with the water. Vishnu gifted Manu with a boat. When the earth was flooded, Manu placed all living beings on the boat and thus save them from immediate destruction. Vishnu himself arrived in his form of the fish and Manu tied the boat to the fish`s horn. Thus the living beings were saved. And when the waters of the flood receded, Manu populated the world afresh.

Saving the mortals from immediate destruction, Lord Vishnu disappeared and after that there was a terrible drought for hundred years on earth. Consequently there was famine and people died out of starvation. Sun also blazed in fury. At a time everything appeared to burn into ashes. The clouds of destruction named samvarta, bhimananda, drona, chanda, valahaka, vidyutapataka and kona appeared on the sky. Again the rain began to pour from the water engulfed the entire earth. Then Manu again save the living beings gathering them into the boat as instructed by Lord Vishnu. When the fish appeared, Manu tied the boat to the fish`s horn with a gigantic snake. While the boat was thus dragged around by the fish, Manu asked Vishnu several questions. The answer provided by the Matsya, formed the text of the Matsya Purana.

During this session of conversation Vishnu imparted Manu, the Surya Vamshi king, the knowledge of the mystery of creation, destruction and recreation, the various eras in universe, knowledge about the solar and the lunar dynasties and the royal genealogies. Thus Manu achieved the wisdom that Divinity is eternal.