by D T Lohith

Created on: February 09, 2007   Last Updated: April 20, 2007

How true are Dashavataras ?
(The ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu)

Dashavataras, or the 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu seems to be a later concept than Vedas. During the time of Vedas, the dieties worshipped by man were the forces of nature like Vayu (Air), Varuna (Water), Agni (Fire), Indra (Intelligence), and so on. Lord Vishnu, promising to take birth on the earth to save the good people from the evils of bad people, is not mentioned anywhere except in the avatara of Krishna. Such a promise is given only by Krishna, during Geetopadesa to Arjuna in Mahabharata, and none of the earlier avataras.

This makes one think on the lines that the concept of Dashavataras was built up later by somebody, with some purpose. It is quite possible, the theory was worked back, starting from Rama or Krishna. If the thought of bringing all the ten avataras had existed from the beginning, I think, it would have been different from the present picture. In fact, there is mention of about 24 avataras of Vishnu in the 'Srimad Bhagavatam' (the story of Sri Krishna) written by 'Devasikhamani Alasingrachar'. One starts wondering why and when were the other 14 avataras got deleted !

Out of the presently popular ten avataras, there are a couple of overlappings. In serial order, the avataras are as follows :

1. Matsya avatara
2. Koorma avatara
3. Varaha avatara
4. Narasimha avatara
5. Vamana avatara
6. Parashurama avatara
7. Kodandarama (also called Sri Rama) avatara
8. Balarama avatara
9. Krishna avatara
10. Kalki avatara

Out of these, two avataras namely Balarama and Srikrishna existed at the same time. They were in fact brothers, Balarama being the elder. But what baffles me is the fact that there was no significant purpose to Blarama's avatara. As per the promise of Vishnu, who is expected on earth whenever the evils reach the level of saturation, he appeared as Balarama, but why did he appear again as a younger brother Krishna almost at the same time? Were two forms of Vishnu necessary to annihilate the evil Kauravas ? In Mahabharata, neither Krishna nor Balarama was directly involved in killing any of the bad people. They cajoled, justified and encouraged Pandavas to kill Kauravas, unlike the earlier avataras wherein Vishnu personally killed the evil person.

Another occasion where overlapping is observed, is when Parasurama and Kodandarama meet briefly. At no other time, two avataras of Vishnu meet each other.

Out of all the avataras, Krishna avatara seems to be described in greatest length.

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