Avatars

Vishnu is representive of the serial incarnation of one being into many different ones. All of the adityars have their avatars but Vishnu's ten are as follows:

Kalkin: This incarnation establishes new millenium. He appears a warrior on a white horse, or even just a horse (south India).

Krishna: The dark one is a trickster god. In all the major epics the stories of the pranks he played as a child, as an adolescent and as an adult define him as a clever, kind and complex character.

 Narasimha: Half man, half lion, this is the avatar that Vishnu takes to kill the demon Hiranyakashipu. As a favor for a personal service, Brahma granted this demon invulnerability to death from gods, men, by weapons, blunt objects, in the day or the night, within or without his house. As Hiranyakashipu terrorizes the universe, Narasimha emerges to disembowel the demon at twilight on his own veranda.

Parashurama: is a brahman (keeper of religious rituals) who kills the hundred arm Arjuna with his axe, annihilates all the warrior class three times seven times and beheads his mother at his father's command.

 Vamana: A dwarf saves the world from Bali and his minions. Vamana begs Bali to give him as much land as can be covered in three strides. The wish is granted, the dwarf transforms himself back into a giant and wins back the whole universe.

Varaha: As a boar, he uses his tusks to hall the earth which has slipped beneath the seas. The earth manifests itself as a beautiful woman.