ORIENTAL SERIES.

206 MATARI-SWAN MATSYA PURANA.
MATARI-$WAK An aerial being who is represented in the
ffig-veda as bringing down or producing Agni (fire)
for the
Bhngus. By some supposed to be the wind.
MATHUKA. An ancient and celebrated city on the right
bank of the Yamuna, surviving in the modern Muttra. It was
the birthplace of Krishna and one of the seven sacred cities. The
Vishmi Pura?za states that it was originally called Madhu or
Madhu-vana, from the demon Madhu, who reigned there, but
that when Lavana, his son and successor, was killed by $atru-
ghna, the conqueror set up his own rule there and built a city
which he called Madhura or Mathura.
MAT.BIS.
'
Mothers '
The divine mothers. These appear
to have been originally the female energies of the great gods, as
Brahman! of Brahma, Maheswarl of /Siva, Yaishwavi of Vishmi,
IndraTii or Aindrl of Indra, &c. The number of them was
seven or eight or sixteen, but in the later mythology they have
increased out of number. They are connected with the Tantra
worship, and are represented as worshipping Siva and attending
upon his son Kartikeya.
MATSYA. c A fish. 3
i. The Fish Incarnation. (See Avatara.)
2. Name of a country. Wilson says, "Dinajpoor, Rungpoor,
and Cooch Behar ;" but there was more than one country of this
name, and one would appear to have been situated in Northern
India. Manu places Matsya in Brahmarshi. According
to the
Maha-bharata, King Virata's capital was called Matsya, his people
also were called Matsyas, and he himself was styled Matsya.
General Cunningham finds it in the neighbourhood of Jayptir,
and says that the town of Yiratf or Bairatf, 105 miles south of
Delhi, was its capital.
MATSYA PURA^VA. This Purfwa is so called from its con-
tents having been narrated to Manu by Yishwu in the form of a
fish (matsya). It consists of between 14,000 and 15,000 stanzas.
This work " is a miscellaneous compilation, but includes in its
contents the elements of a genuine Purana. At the same time,
it is of too mixed a character to be considered as a genuine work
of the Pauranik class. Many of its chapters are the same as
parts of the Vishnu and Padma Purawas. It has also drawn
largely from the
"
Maha-bharata. Although a Saiva work, it is
not exclusively so, and it has no such sectarial absurdities as the
Kurma and Linga,"