The avatar did so and thus granted Bali immortality. In deference, the king offered his head as the third place for Vamana to place his foot. Bali realized that Vamana was Vishnu incarnate. He stepped over heaven in his first stride, and the netherworld with the second. Bali agreed, and the dwarf then changed his size to that of a giant. During a yajna of the king, Vamana approached him and Bali promised him for whatever he asked. The gods appealed to Vishnu for protection and he descended as the dwarf Vamana. This humbled the other deities and extended his authority over the three worlds. The fourth descendant of Hiranyakashyap, Bali, with devotion and penance was able to defeat Indra, the god of firmament. He then disembowels the rakshasa at the courtyard threshold of his house, at dusk, with his claws, while he lay on his thighs.

Vishnu descended as an anthropomorphic incarnation, with the body of a man and head and claws of a lion. Hranyakashipu asks that he not be killed by man or animal, inside or out, day or night, on earth or the stars, with a weapon either living or inanimate. Brahma tells him this is not possible, but that he could bind the death of Hiraṇyakashipu with conditions. Brahma thus offers the demon a boon and Hiraṇyakaśipu asks for immortality. He undertook many years of austere penance to take revenge on Viṣṇu for the death of his brother. The younger brother of Hirṇayakṣa, Hiraṇyakaśipu wanted revenge on Viṣṇu and his followers. Thus, Varaha is the embodiment of the Supreme Being who brings order amidst chaos in the world by his sacrifice The ears are said to indicate rites (voluntary and obligatory). His joints represent the various ceremonies. The mane represents the hymns of the Vedas. The head represents the seat of the Brahmin (priest). His coarse hair represents sexual prowess. The eyes represent the day and the night. The hair on his head denotes the sacrificial grass.

His mouth is the altar with tongue of sacrificial fire. His feet represent the Vedas (scriptures). In the Vishnu Purana, Varaha represents yajna (sacrifice), as the eternal upholder of the earth.

Varaha finally slew the demon and retrieved the Earth from the ocean, lifting it on his tusks, and restored Bhudevi to her place in the universe. The battle between Varaha and Hiranyaksha is believed to have lasted for a thousand years. When the demon Hiranyaksha stole the earth (goddess Bhudevi) and hid her in the primordial waters, Vishnu appeared as Varaha to rescue her. When the devas and asuras were churning the Ocean of milk in order to get amrita, the nectar of immortality, with serpent Vasuki as the rope and the mount Mandara as the churning staff, the mountain starts to sink, Vishnu took the form of a tortoise to bear the weight of the mountain. The ship was tied to the horn of the fish, the fish pulls the ship with great speed towards the himalayas where there was a small island for all the life forms to gradually grow and increase in number. The whole world was washed up in rain and as a result there was no land to stay.Ī fish (matsya) with horns comes to the rescue. When the world was at the brink of extinction Manu was instructed by God to rescue the life form on earth, he chooses 1 male and 1 female from every species, also collects plants of different species and loads them all on the big ship he had already built. The most accepted list of avatars is as follows: Different Traditions list the avatars differently. In other versions, Buddha may be dropped from the list and substituted by regional deities like Vithoba or Jagannath, or Balarama. Sometimes, Krishna replaces Vishnu as the source of all avatars and Balarama takes Krishna’s place in the list.

The standard list is: Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Kalki. The list of Dashavatara varies across sects and regions. In the Vishnu Purana and the Bhagavata Purana, the Kali-yuga is described as ending with the appearance of Kalki, who will defeat the wicked, liberate the virtuous, and initiate a new Satya or Kalki Yuga. The time till completion for Kali Yuga is in 427,000 years. The next three appeared in Treta Yuga, the eighth and ninth in Dwapara Yuga and the tenth will appear in Kali Yuga. The first four avatars of Vishnu appeared in Satya or Krita Yuga, the first of the four Yugas, also called ‘The Golden Age’. God Vishnu incarnates on Earth from time to time to eradicate evil forces, to restore the dharma and to liberate the worthy ones or devotees from the cycle of births and deaths. These Avatars play a major role in shaping human evolution through centuries. Thus, Vishnu is said to descend in form of an avatar to restore cosmic order. The word Dashavatara derives from daśa, meaning ‘ten’ and avatar (avatāra), meaning ‘descent’. Dashavatara refers to the ten avatars of Vishnu, the Hindu god of preservation.

Dasavatharam