File:1801 sketch of Vishnu avatars Matsya and Kurma in Meenakshi Shaivism Temple at Madurai Tamil Nadu 03.jpg

English: The Madurai temple celebrates Shaivism and all major traditions of Hinduism. Meenakshi (Parvati) marries Shiva, she is considered sister of Vishnu. It is Vishnu who gives her away during her wedding to Shiva, in a ritual festival every year.

Matsya is the fish avatar, the first of Vishnu descent. Kurma is tortoise avatar, the second Vishnu avatar.

From the source,

Pen and ink drawing of Matsya and Kurma, the fish and tortoise incarnations of Vishnu, from an 'Album of 51 drawings (57 folios) of buildings, sculpture and paintings in the temple and choultry of Tirumala Nayyak at Madura. c.1801-05', by an anonymous artist working in the South India/Madurai style, c. 1801-1805. Each picture is inscribed with a title and a number in ink.

This drawing is of a carving that can be found in the Minakshi Sundareshvara Temple of Madurai, the sacred complex built under the patronage of the Nayaka ruler Tirumala in the 17th century. Within the large enclosure are two temples dedicated to Shiva as Sundareshvara with his consort Minakshi, and several mandapas (halls) with elaborately sculpted columns of the gods from the Hindu pantheon. Matsya is the first of Vishnu's earthly incarnations in which he appeared as an enormous fish to save mankind and the sacred texts, the Vedas, from a powerful flood. Kurma, the tortoise, is the second incarnation of Vishnu. The god assumed this shape to serve as a base used by the gods and demons to churn the cosmic sea in order to create amrita, the nectar of immortality.