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Dasavaratha
Sri Maha Vishnu
Matsya Avatara
Kurma Avatara
Varaha Avatara
Narasimha Avatara
Vamana Avatara
Parasurama Avatara
Rama Avatara
Balarama Avatara
Krishna Avatara
Kalki Avatara
SRI MAHA VISHNU
In Hindu mythology, Bramha is considered the creator, Vishnu
- the protector and 
Siva - the destroyer. In this holy trinity
as Sri Maha Vishnu is the protector, Vishnu has taken several forms
over the ages to come to the rescue of His devotees, The Dasavataras
are the 10 incarnations of India.
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MATSYA AVATARA
In Matsya Avatara, Lord Vishnu
is incarnated as a fish in this world.
In Sanskrit Matsya means fish. He is depicted here
as emerging out of a fish. In this incarnation he is said to have killed the
demon Hayagriva who had stolen the Vedas. He is shown holding a lotus bud, conch
and chakra in his hands. Matsya avatara is also associated with the legend
of Manu. In the earliest yuga (era) of Sata-yuga, a king
named Manu performed severe penance for thousands of years. One day
as he was performing ablutions with river water, a small fish came into
his hands and just as he was about to throw the fish back into the river,
the fish requested the king to save its life. Heeding its request, the
king put the fish into a jar of water but the fish started growing and the
jar was not big enough for it. Then the king threw it into the river, but
it soon it outgrew the river and the king then threw it into Ganges and
then into the ocean. The king realized that it was Lord Vishnu himself and
then the Lord made an appearance and made a special request to the king.
It predicted that the world would come to an end by a huge flood in seven
days and requested the king to build a huge boat and take the seven sages
(hermits), seeds of all plants, one animal of each type and told him
that he would appear as a fish to propel the boat to Mount Himavan for
surviving the flood to the next yuga. True to his word, after seven days
the Lord appeared and the king tied the boat to the fish by using the
royal serpent Vasuki and the fish took all of them to Mount Himavan and kept
them there till the flood was over and in the new era, the king started
procreation a for the new era. |
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KURMA AVATARA
In Kurma Avatara, Lord
Vishnu is incarnated as a tortoise.
Lord Vishnu is said to have helped the gods in churning of the ocean for
nectar. Vishnu beheaded the demon Rahu, when he wanted to
drink the nectar. The tortoise is depicted as the lower portion of the
body, while the upper half is in human form with four hands. Once the gods suddenly lost all their
strength due to a curse by the short-tempered sage Durvasa. The sage had
once presented a garland of flowers to Indra, king of Gods, who carelessly
gave it away to his elephant which trampled it. The Devas approached
Vishnu for help. Vishnu then asked them to churn the ocean of milk after
adding medicines into the ocean. Mount Mandara could be used a the churning
stick he said. He requested them to ask them help of asuras in lifting the
mountain in exchange for offer of the share of nectar of immortality that
would ensue from the churning. Both the devas and the asuras churned the
ocean using the serpent Vasuki as the rope. As the churning was proceeding the mountain was sinking and then Lord Vishnu took
the form of the tortoise Kurma and kept the mountain afloat. As soon as
the bowl of amrita, the nectar of immortality was out, the asuras grabbed
it. Then Lord Vishnu took the form of an apsara, a beautiful maiden, and
seduced the asuras into letting her distribute the nectar and also to
abide by her order of distribution. As soon as the devaswere served the
maiden disappeared thus totally deceiving the asuras and making them
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VARAHA AVATARA
In his Varaha avatar, Vishnu is said to have killed the demon Hiranyaksha in
order to free the world from disaster. 
It depicts Vishnu with the face of
a boar in the standing posture. The upper two hands are holding a shankha
and a chakra respectively. In Varaha Avatar, Lord
Vishnu incarnates himself as a boar in this world. A demon Hiranyaksha,
had prayed for Lord Brahma and got awarded a boon that no beast nor man
nor god could kill him. But somehow from the list of beasts the name of
boar was missing. This proved to be his lacunae. He then started a
campaign of plunder across the worlds. He pushed the world to the Pataala
loka, or the under of the sea. He stole the Vedas, the holy scriptures
from the Lord Brahma, while he was asleep and performed huge atrocities. To
retrieve the Vedas and to save the world the Lord Vishnu assumed the role
of a boar and brought out the earth from the under of the ocean, using its
two tusks. He then killed Hiranyaksha and retrieved the Vedas from the
asura and brought it back to the safe custody of the Lord Brahma.
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NARASIMHA AVATARA
As Narasimha Avatara, Lord
Vishnu is incarnated as a semi-man, semi-lion in this world. The king
of demons(asuras), Hiranyakasyapa, who was also the brother of Hiranyaksha
and the father of Prahlada. wanted to become immortal and wanted to
remain young forever. 
To this end, he meditated for Lord Brahma and
because of his severe penance, the gods were frightened and asked Brahma
to pacify the king. Brahma was impressed by his austerity and granted him
a wish. Hiranyakasyapa wished that he be neither killed by a man or beast,
nor in daylight or at night and neither inside or outside a building.
Having obtained the wish he considered himself the supreme God and forbade
all worship of gods by anyone. But his son Prahlada, was an ardent devotee
of Vishnu. This enraged Hiranyakasyapa very much. He ordered numerous ways
to kill Prahlada including asking his sister Holika to sit with Prahlada
in the fire. But Prahlada always escaped unhurt. Enraged, once he asked
Prahlad to show him the Lord Vishnu. Prahlad said, "He is
everywhere". Further enraged, Hiranyakasyapa knocked down a pillar,
and asked if Lord was present there. Lord Vishnu then emerged as a half
lion, half man from the pillar which was neither inside the house nor
outside, and the time was evening, neither night nor day. He then killed
Hiranyakasyapa thus saving the life of his devotee Prahlada. |
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VAMANA AVATARA
In
Vamanaa Avatar, Lord
Vishnu incarnates himself as a small Brahmin boy named Vamana. He is said to have regained the three worlds and restored them to their rightful protector. Vamana is shown as a mendicant holding a kamandala in one hand and umbrella in the
other. Bali, the 
grandson of Prahlada was a very valorous and mighty asura. By his penance
and might, he conquered the whole world. Indra and other gods fearing that
he and asuras would conquer all the three worlds, went to Lord Vishnu for
help. Lord Vishnu was then born as a Vamana in the household of a
brahmana (priest). He went to Bali and asked for alms. Bali
was delighted to offer him anything he requested even though his priest
warned him that it was Lord Vishnu. Vamana
then requested for the amount of land that could come under his three
feet. Bali gracefully agreed. Lord Vishnu then grew in size and covered
the earth and heaven in two strides. And due to lack of space, he put his
third leg on Bali himself and crushed Bali to the nether or the Patala
loka.
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PARASHURAMA AVATARA
Parashurama the sixth avatara of Vishnu is shown his battle axe in his raised right hand. He is shown with a long beard and knotted long hair.
In Parasurama Avatara,
Lord Vishnu incarnates himself as a brahmana (priest) in this world. He was
brought in this world 
to avenge all kshatriyas who had become arrogant and
were suppressing the brahmans in the world. He was born to Jamadagni and
Renuka, and belonged to the Brighu clan. Parashurama was always carrying
an axe presented to him by Lord Shiva of whom he was an ardent devotee.
Kartavirya a powerful king, once went to Jamadagni's home when he was out,
and after a meal, stole the Kamadhenu cow, which was supposed to give
endless quantity of milk. Jamadgni was enraged and he went and killed the
king and brought Kamadhenu back. On hearing this the son of the king came
back and killed Jamdagni. Parasurama
was enraged at this and went and avenged the death of his father by
killing all kshatriyas in 21 battles. His story is story of the supremacy
of brahmans over the kshatriyas.
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RAMA AVATARA
Lord Rama is depicted with a bow and
arrow. Vishnu is said to have reincarnated as Rama to end the terror created by Ravana, the king of Lanka. Ravana carried away Rama's chaste wife Sita, consequently Rama killed Ravana, and rescued her.
Rama is 
the central character in the epic Ramayana. In this biggest epic of Indian mythology a
myriad of topics are covered, including war, love, brotherhood, ideal man,
son etc. It is essentially the story of an ideal king, son, father and
man, Rama. As an ideal son, he agrees to abide by wishes of his father
King Dasaratha to spend 14 years in forest, along with his wife Sita and
brother Lakshman. During the course of his stay in forest, the demon
Ravana abducts his wife Sita. Rama then sets out in search of his wife.
During this he makes friends with king of monkeys Sugreeva, and his
devotee Hanuman. In the end he wages a war with Ravana and rescues Sita to
return to Ayodhya and rule it as an ideal king for thousands of years. |
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BALARAMA AVATARA
Balrama is also considered to be an incarnation of  Lord Vishnu. He is born as the brother of Lord Krishna. Balarama and Krishna are the sons of Devaki and Vasudeva. In this incarnation he killed Pralambasura the demon and he killed many more
demons. Balarama is shown holding a plough over his shoulder. In some texts, Buddha is considered to be part of the Dasavatara instead of Balarama, though this is an area of controversy. |
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KRISHNA AVATARA
Krishna is considered to be  the most important incarnation of Vishnu.
Krishna is the central character in the
epic Mahabhartha. In this biggest epic of Indian mythology a myriad of
topics are covered, including war, love, brotherhood, politics etc. It is
essentially the story of two warring groups of cousins the Pandavas and the
Kauravas. In the battle between the Kaurava's and the Pandava's, he was with the latter, because they followed the path of righteousness.
As a part of the Mahabhahrata, during the battle of Kurukshetra
Krishna, gives divine knowledge in the form of a long discourse to his disciple
Arjuna. This discourse is collectively
termed as Bhagvad-Gita. Krishna During his child-hood was responsible for
the killing of Kamsa. Krishna is also considered to be an ultimate playboy
who was responsible for charming all gopikaas (cowherdesses) around him. He
fought against the exploitation right from his childhood and killed many
demons like Kalayavan, Kansa, Jarasandh etc. |
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KALKI AVATARA
According to the Puranas, the Kalki incarnation will take place towards the end of Kaliyuga. It is said that he will be riding a white horse named
Devaduta. 
In Kalki Avatar, Lord
Vishnu will incarnate himself as Kalki, the machine-man, who will come
riding his white horse and with his blazing sword in his hands. This is
supposed to be a future avatar of Lord Vishnu. At the end of Kali Yuga
(present eon) He will punish all evil doers in this world, destroy this
world supposedly and recreate a golden age again.
Kalki avathara is
believed to be the last of the
avatars of Lord Vishnu.
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