MYTHOLOGY AND HISTORICTY OF AVATARA

Avatara literally means descent, especially of a deity from the heaven and its appearance on the earth, but alternatively it indicates the incarnation of Vishnu.
The origin of the concept of Avatara has been traced to the Vedic literature. The Shatapatha Brahmana refers to the devine form of Fish(Matsya), Tortoise(Kurma) and Dwarf (Vamana). It is said that having assumed the form of a Tortoise Prajapati created offspring. In the form of a boar he lifted the earth from the waters. The Taittiriya Brahmana repeats the story relating to boar lifting the earth from water. It also alludes to Narsimha or Man-lion. Reference to deified fish is found in the Shatapatha Brahmana which narrates the legend of the great deluge.
In the Shatapatha and Taittiriya Brahmana the avataras of fish, tortoise and boar are represented as the manifestations of Prajapati Brahma. However in later mythologies these avataras have been specifically related to Vishnu. The great Gupta Kings, Samundragupta and Chandragupta were devout adherents and patrons of the Bhagavata cult related to Vishnu. It was during their reigns that Vaishnavism became the most popular religion in India. In the Gita, some sections of Mahabharata and the Puranas which assumed their final shape in the Gupta period (320-550 A.D.). Vishnu was elevated to the position of supreme God and was represented as the almighty savior of the man-kind who incarnated himself from time to time in human or animal forms for the protection of the pious and destruction of the wicked.
As regards the actual number of Avataras there are different versions. However, traditionally it is accepted as ten. Very often the order of names in the list differs. The names of ten Avataras are as follows ;
1. Matsya (Fish) 2. Kurma (Tortoise) 3. Varaha (Boar) 4. Narsimha (Man-lion) 5. Vamana (Dwarf) 6. Parshuram (Rama, the bearer of battle axe) 7. Ram Chandra Rama, the bearer of bow and arrow.8. Balaram Haldhar ( Ram, the bearer of plough). (He is replaced by the Buddha in some text). 9. Krishna (The leader of Cowherds-Gopala), and 10. Kalki ( who is to come).


As is the standard list of Avataras . However, sometimes changes are also found in number. The Mahabharata while adhering to ten names, makes a significant change – it includes Hansa (Vihangama – the bird). The Bhagawata Puran also has mentioned this avatara. The Harivamsha Purana has added another important name of Lotus.
The number of avataras went on increasing as a result of constant meditation and speculation about the origin of the universe and evolution of life on it and enquiry into ultimate relations and reached twenty four. Out of these Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Lotus and Hansa are cosmogenic in which animals and plants have been deified, while Narasimha, Vamana, Parashu ram, Ram Chandra, Balaram and Krishna are depicted as human beings. All these represent various stages in the evolution of human civilization with the development of technology and lastly the Kalki, the future incarnation points out the direction of future scientific and technological developments.
The myth has been defined as a traditional or legendary story, usually connected with deities or dermigods and creation of the would be inhabitants. It is a story of belief that attempts to express or explain a basic truth.
A critical examination of the mythology of avataras reveals the mystery of life on our planet and its evolution quite in the same way as the Darvinian theory of evolution and natural selection.
There is evidence to prove that all living beings on our planet have descended from the same original ancestor. Indians in contrast to contrast to the other religions have emphasized this kinship between the man and the animal and even plants and discovered the existence of mind in many of them.

1. Matsya Avatara :It represents the age of fishes of Fishes
Many scientists have speculated about the beginnings of life on our planet, but there is no definite or convincing idea about the way life began. However, there is a general consensus at least one point that life began in waters and that its earliest forms which have left fossils were vertebrates (Ekashringa – tanu of Puranas) animals or the earliest fishes. In the Indian mythology it is known as Matsya Avatara, marking the beginning of the age of Fishes.
The early world was of strong tides and currents, not favorable to animals of bigger size. Their existence became possible when the tides and currents calmed down, sufficiently for their survival. This changing phenomena was rightly speculated by Indian thinkers. In the Shatapatha Brahmana which describes relates the story of the great deluge, it is mentioned that a tiny fish landed on the palms of Manu, who taking pity on the animals, put it in his Kamandalu in which it began to grow in size slowly so much so that at last Manu had to release it in the ocean. On the eve of deluge the fish arrived and rescued Manu by toeing his boat to a safest place sat the top of the mountain. This kind of evolution from a small fish to a huge must have taken millions of years to materialize.

2. Lotus –or Padma It represents the Age of Plants as Mentioned in the Puranas
During the age of fishes there was no soil and the life existed only in the sea. Subsequently when extensive shallow seas and lagoons came into existence, fishes spread out towards the land. Scientists believe that plants preceded animals. But there was no real soil which could provide some stiff support to it to hold up straight when the water was withdrawn . Lotus is a representative plant that came into existence in this period. It could survive in the Swamp after the evaporation of water also.

3. Kurma - The Tortoise : It Represents the Age of Amphibia
By this time large number of insects also came into being. Hitherto almost all living beings breathed air dissolved in water and only some of them had learnt to breathe outside the water.
Geologists believe that there existed many shallow lagoons which very slowly drying up. Some of the fishes which could not find a safe passage to water survived in the new situation by crawling out of the dried up lagoons. They adapted themselves to the new environment and gradually acquired and developed legs and began to eat land plants or insects. Fossils illustrating various steps in the process are available now. In course of time such animals came into being by the processes of evolution and natural selection as are called amphibian the tortoises and turtles. They started laying eggs on land and returned to water. They did not hatch them. Eggs carried on their development independently before hatching to a stage so nearly like the adult form that the young once when they came out of the shells could breath in the air from the first moment.

4. Hansa - Swan represents the age of Evolution of birds
A group of hopping small creatures seem to have been pushed up to the higher hills close to sea. Some of these creatures developed a new type of scales that were clongated and branched into feathers and later wings instead of sheaths to cover their bodies. They also developed more concern for their eggs. Most of the reptiles are quite careless in this matter. They leave their eggs for the sun and weather to hatch them but some of the new reptiles developed the habit of keeping guard on and hatching their eggs. Hansa- swan is the surviving representative of such early birds. Since it marked an important revolutionary stage in the evolution of life, the Hansa is also included in the list of avataras in recorded in the Mahabharta and Bhagvata Purana Hindu mythology.
Hansa is an aquatic bird, that lives in and near moist and swampy places.

5. Varaha : The Boar : It represents the age of evolution of mammals and the process of drying up lagoons and shallow waters. According to a legend recorded in the Taittiriya Brahmana . Prajaparti Brahma rescued the earth from water assuming the form of a boar. He wiped of the moisture from her and she became the extended one -Prithvi
Prithvi. It is also said that the earth was lifted by a black boar with a hundred arms.
It may be mentioned that mythology is not history but without hesitation it can be said that the myth narrates a sacred history. It relates to an event that took place in primordial times. In other words a myth explains how through the deeds of some supernatural being a reality came into existence, be it the whole or only a fragment of it. Myth is then an account of the creation. It relates how some thing was produced. It tells us only what really happened. Actors in that myth are supernatural beings. In short, myths describe various breakthroughs into the world. The cosmogenic myth is true because the existence of the earth is there to prove it.
The myth of Varah (boar) avatara relates to a period when the lagoons and marshy lands on our planet were drying up but the universe was still covered with water. Some plants like lotus had grown but the water was required to be drained out to acquire land for useful purposes by human beings. The Varaaha myth speculates on the creation of water channels-rivers to carry the water in the sea. Boars or pigs belong to the fourfooted mammalian class. In that class the mother suckles her young ones it is common knowledge that the pig in search of food dig up the earth by their horns to pull out the roots. In this process they are believed to have created channels which drained out water that slowly formed rivers- natural streams of water of fairly large sizes, flowing in definite courses or channels or series of diverging and converging channels. The Varaha legend metaphistorically describes this process of retrieving the earth from water it is interesting to note that all Varaha Tirthas are located on the banks of rivers and lakes.