The beautiful Madhubani painting depicts the Matshya avatara of Lord Vishnu as perceived by the simple and innocent people of Madhubani in Bihar. Here two huge  fishes are depicted along with Lord Vishnu in between. Madhubani is a beautiful style of painting done mostly by the women of Mithila and surrounding areas in Bihar. 

Matsyavatara is the form of the fish taken up by Vishnu during a deluge that submerged the earth. The Lord asked a sage to collect together samples of all species and wait in a boat. The gigantic golden fish (Lord Vishnu) then dragged the boat through the deluge and enabled Bhrama to start the act of creation all over again.

Yet another version of Matsyavatara of Lord Vishnu has it that a demon once stole the four Vedas and hid them under the sea. Vishnu assumed the Matsya form and retrieved them and then restored them to their original fragrance.