In the published article titled Great flood stories: Inter-religion similarities, Ankita Chand listed out the following great flood stories prevalent in the world.
· The Hindu Flood Story in Matsya Purana
· The Biblical Flood Story of Abrahamic Religion
· The Mesopotamian Flood Story - The Epic of Gilgamesh
· The Greek Flood Story
· The Native American Flood Stories
· The Flood Story in Buddhism
· The Chinese Flood Story
· The Zoroastrian Flood Story
· The Thai Flood Story
· The Egyptian Flood Story
· The Flood Story of Aboriginals in Australia
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In all the stories, the common point is that majority of the humans had become wicked and untruthful and except for the main characters in the story, the remaining population was wiped out in the Great flood, and after receding of the flood, the population grew again from the main characters of the story.
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There are lot of similarities between the Manu flood story and the Noah’ ark. These similarities are: both Manu and Noah were described as a virtuous individual. Both had three sons before flood. Charma, Sharma and Yapeti were the sons of Manu; and Ham, Sham and Japheth were the sons of Noah.
In the Old Testament it is mentioned that God saved Noah by instructing him to build an ark. Similarly in Matsya Purana, Lord instructed Manu to built a boat and fill it with animals and seeds to repopulate the earth. After the flood, Noah’ Ark was rested on the mountains of Ararat and Manu’s boat was positioned at the top of the Malaya range of the mountains. Both Manu and Noah were said to repopulated the earth and all the humans were their descendants.
There exists another similar story in Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa (शतपथ-ब्राह्मण) of Hinduism.
This story contains 2 parts.
In part-I, The main character Manu saved a fish, which grew very big in due course, and warned him of impending great flood, and Manu builds a big ship, enters it. When the flood arrives, the big fish saves him and takes him to a Northern Mountain. Except him all creatures were swept away.
In part-II, being desirous of offspring, Manu engaged in worshipping and austerities. During this time he also performed a pāka-sacrifice and a woman was produced in a year and she declared herself as his daughter. She is essentially the same as the Iḍā and she is the Brahman; for she, the god-fashioned one.
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From the above story, we can understand that it is basically, a spiritual oriented story narrated in esoteric sense, rather than a physical flood story.
According to my understanding, this story of Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa spread across the world and retold in different manner, suiting to the local conditions.
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The above spiritual oriented story of Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa has precursor in Rig Veda, wherein the AGNI or BRAHMAN was prayed to to provide a boat to cross over ocean , ie., the rishi is praying AGNI to liberate him.
रथाय नावमुत नो गृहाय नित्यारित्रां पद्वतीं रास्यग्ने । अस्माकं वीराँ उत नो मघोनो जनाँश्च या पारयाच्छर्म या च ॥
rathāya nāvam uta no gṛhāya nityāritrām padvatīṃ rāsy agne | asmākaṃ vīrām̐ uta
no maghono janām̐ś ca yā pārayāc charma yā ca ||
English translation:
For our chariot and for our house, o Agni, give us a boat with built-in oars and a foot [=keel? rudder?], which will carry our heroes and our bounteous (patrons) and our peoples to the further shore and which (will be) our shelter.
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