Tribes in Ancient India c70.3

c70.3

The question arises whether the name Matsya has anything to do with totemism, as suggested by Prof. Macdonell in his *Vedic Mythology*. He says: ‘There are possibly in the *Ṛgveda* some survivals of totemism, or the belief in the descent of the human race or of individual tribes or families from animals or plants’, and he refers to the Matsyas as an illustration of his statement (*Vedic Mythology*, p. 153). But, as Prof. A. Berriedale Keith points out, ‘mere animal names prove little as to totemism, which is not demonstrated for any Aryan stock’.¹ The myth about the birth of a king called Matsya from the womb of a fish along with Matsyagandhā Satyavatī, as related in the *Mahābhārata* (*Ādiparvan*, Chap. 63)¹ cannot be proved to have any connection with the Matsya people. Nor is there anything in the account of the Matsyas to show that the fish was an object of worship among them, or was ever regarded with any special veneration. The fish incarnation of Viṣṇu has nothing specifically to do with the Matsya people. There is, in fact, no valid reason for thinking that such Indo-Aryan tribal names as *Matsya* (fish), *Aja* (goat), and *Vatsa* (calf) have anything to do with totemism.