Shraddhadeva Manu

Shraddhadeva Manu
Matsya protecting Sraddhadeva Manu and the seven sages at the time of Deluge

In Hindu mythology, Shraddhadeva Manu (Sanskrit manuśraddhādeva) is the current Manu and the progenitor of the current humanity (manvantara). He is the seventh of the 14 manus of the current kalpa (aeon).

Shraddhadeva was the king of the Dravida Kingdom before the great flood. Forewarned about the flood by the matsya avatara of Vishnu, he saved the humanity by building a boat that carried his family and the saptarishi to safety. He is the son of Vivasvat and is therefore also known as Manuvaivasvata. He is also called Satyavrata (always truthful).

According to the Puranas, the genealogy of Shraddhadeva is as follows:

Shraddhadeva was the king of the Dravida Kingdom during the epoch of the Matsya Purana. According to the Matsya Purana, Matsya, the avatar of Vishnu, first appeared as a shaphari (a small carp) to Shraddhadeva while he washed his hands in a river flowing down the Malaya Mountains.

The little fish asked the king to save him, and out of compassion, he put it in a water jar. It kept growing bigger and bigger, until the king first put it in a bigger pitcher, and then deposited it in a well. When the well also proved insufficient for the ever-growing fish, the King placed it in a tank (reservoir), that was two yojanas (16 miles) in height above the surface and on land, as much in length, and a yojana (8 miles) in breadth. As it grew further, the king had to put the fish in a river, and when even the river proved insufficient, he placed it in the ocean, after which it nearly filled the vast expanse of the great ocean.

It was then that Vishnu, revealing himself, informed the king of an all-destructive deluge which would be coming very soon. The king built a huge boat which housed his family, saptarishi, nine types of seeds, and animals to repopulate the earth, after the deluge would end and the oceans and seas would recede. At the time of deluge, Vishnu appeared as a horned fish and Shesha appeared as a rope, with which the king fastened the boat to the horn of the fish.