The Matsya Purana offers an exacting iconographic portrait of Varuna, the Vedic guardian of waters and moral law, seated on the composite Makara. This long-form analysis clarifies Varuna’s attributes—conch-white complexion, lotus ornaments, and the distinctive pāśa—while explaining how the Makara’s hybrid, amphibious form symbolizes liminality, fertility, and disciplined flow. By correlating the Matsya Purana with…