Avatara An Overview of Scholarly Sources PDF

Avatāra: An Overview of Scholarly Sources
Tracy Coleman
T he term avatāra is derived from the Sanskrit ava√tṝ, cross down or de-
scend, and refers to a deity’s “descent” to earth, commonly called an
“incarnation.” Although the word avatāra does not appear in the verses
themselves, Bhagavadgītā 4.7–8 expresses the basic rationale for divine interven-
tion in the world:
yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata /

adhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṃ sṛjāmyaham //
paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṃ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām /
dharmasaṃsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge //
Whenever dharma declines and adharma flourishes,

then I create myself, O Bhārata.
For protecting good people and destroying evil,
for establishing dharma,
I come into being in age after age.
Jaiswal 2016 argues that the avatāra doctrine as formulated in this passage “pro-
vided Brahmanism with an extremely useful device for establishing its cultural
hegemony” by privileging varṇāśramadharma and legitimating the “destruction
of evil-doers” who resist it (p. 137). She says that the purāṇas further advance this
view and were “created as instruments of acculturation and dissemination of the
Brahmanic ideology” by brāhmaṇas who encountered aboriginal populations,
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assimilated them into the social hierarchy as śūdras, and subordinated their dei-
ties by incorporating them into the Vaiṣṇava pantheon (pp. 137-140).
Whether or not such strategies underlie the development of the avatāra in
theory and practice, the divine has taken many forms throughout South Asian
history, including Viṣṇu’s popular daśāvatāra; images in temples considered
arcāvatāra (see Narayanan 1996 and Hopkins 2002); natural forms in geographic
locations called tīrtha or “crossing,” also from the Sanskrit √tṝ and signifying a
place that like an avatāra allows devotees to “cross” beyond ordinary reality (see
Eck 1981, Alley 2002, and Lochtefeld 2010); and contemporary gurus viewed as
avatāras whose global movements have further universalized the ancient concept
and made the benefits of divine descent and embodiment available to spiritual
seekers worldwide, irrespective of traditional social and religious codes.
Scholars disagree about the origins of the concept, with some positing the
Vedic Puruṣa or Agni as early models of divine embodiment in many forms,
but all agree that various terms were used to describe this phenomenon before
avatāra became prominent in purāṇic literature (see Couture 2012a). Hacker 1960
examines the “terminological history of the avatāra doctrine” (p. 68) in a study of
Sanskrit terms (such as rūpa, prādurbhāva, and aṃśāvataraṇa), and contends that
terminology changed in order to distinguish divine manifestations from ordinary
karmic rebirth in saṃsāra. Brinkhaus 1993 analyzes early prādurbhāva lists in
epic and purāṇic literature and proposes that in the oldest passages, Viṣṇu and
Nārāyaṇa are distinct gods “within two separate mythological traditions” (p. 103)
before becoming Viṣṇu-Nārāyaṇa-Vāsudeva in later avatāra stories. Examining
ancient archaeological evidence, Härtel 1987 argues that while Viṣṇu becomes
prominent only during the Gupta period, the Vṛṣṇi vīra Vāsudeva was already
worshipped in the second century BCE, before being associated with Bhāgavata
vyūhas or with the later doctrine of avatāras. Couture 2001 considers the theatri-
cal connotations of the terms avatāra and avataraṇa in the Mahābhārata and the
Harivaṃśa and suggests that all of Viṣṇu-Kṛṣṇa’s descents and acts on earth are
like dramatic entrances onto a stage (raṅga) where the play of līlā transpires.
Gonda 1954 explores connections between the Vedic Viṣṇu and later avatāras,
noting how Viṣṇu’s protective capacity develops in the early avatāra narratives
and finding here the soteriological foundations for later Vaiṣṇava avatāras elabo-
rated in the traditions of bhakti.
In an extensive study of the concepts bhakti and avatāra, Biardeau 1994 sug-
gests that while the epic avatāra descends in a militant form in order to enable
good to triumph over evil, the avatāra’s being fundamentally a divine yogi allows
for a universalization of salvation through bhakti, even as hierarchies related
Avatāra: An Overview of Scholarly Sources 7
to dharma remain foundational to the social structure. Many studies discussed

below or included in the bibliography thus reflect on changing conceptions of the
avatāra according to historical and theological developments in bhakti traditions
up to the present day.
Daśāvatāra—The Ten Descents of Viṣṇu

Although lists vary and Viṣṇu’s (or Kṛṣṇa’s) forms are occasionally said to be
“countless” (avatārā hyasaṃkhyeyā hareḥ, as in Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1.3.26), the most
widely celebrated avatāras are the Vaiṣṇava daśāvatāra, the “ten descents” of Viṣṇu
into various embodied forms whose general purpose is to rectify the balance of
good and evil in the world, sometimes by slaying a specific demon or demonic
king. Stories of such descents remain popular in India and date to the Sanskrit
epics and purāṇas, with some having earlier roots in Vedic literature. Couture
2012b cites different lists from epic and purāṇic sources, and says that the “old-
est series of ten avatāras (differing slightly from the standard list) comes from the
Daśāvatāra (‘Ten Avatāra’) Temple in the village of Deogarh (Lalitpur district, Uttar
Pradesh) and dates from the beginning of the 6th century.” He then notes that
Kṣemendra’s Daśāvatāracarita (c.1066 CE) provides a list of what is today considered
the classical daśarūpa, “ten forms” of Viṣṇu: 1) Matsya, Fish; 2) Kūrma, Tortoise; 3)
Varāha, Boar; 4) Narasiṃha, Man-Lion; 5) Vāmana, Dwarf; 6) Paraśurāma, Rāma
with the Axe; 7) Rāma (of the epic Rāmāyaṇa); 8) Kṛṣṇa; 9) the Buddha; and 10) Kalki
or Kalkin (the avatāra still to come at the end of the Kali Yuga).
For translations from primary sources, see Dimmitt and van Buitenen 1978,
a reader in the Sanskrit purāṇas: Chapter 2 (on Viṣṇu) includes avatāra lists from
the Mārkaṇḍeya, Matsya, and Garuḍa Purāṇas; translations of avatāra narratives
from various sources; and the churning of the ocean story from the Viṣṇu Purāṇa;
Chapter 3 treats Kṛṣṇa exclusively, with stories from his childhood, youth, and
adulthood in Dvārakā. Mani 1975 is a purāṇic encyclopedia that includes detailed
descriptions of Viṣṇu’s avatāras, including Kapila, Dattātreya, and others generally
excluded from the typical daśāvatāra lists (see also Jacobsen 2008 on Kapila, and
Rigopoulos 1998 and 2012 on Dattātreya); see Mani’s general entry “Avatāra” and
separate entries on most of the individual avatāras, in which Mani summarizes the
stories in detail, noting variants, and indicates specific primary sources, generally
the Mahābhārata and various purāṇas. Rosen 2015 discusses different daśāvatāra
lists and images from various texts, traditions, and temples across the subconti-
nent. In his twelfth-century Gītagovinda, Jayadeva considers the daśāvatāra to be
descents of Kṛṣṇa, and he includes Balarāma (Kṛṣṇa’s brother) as the eighth rūpa
(see Miller 1977).
Matsya is Viṣṇu’s Fish avatāra, descended to rescue the Vedas from the horse-
headed demon Hayagrīva and to save Satyavrata Manu from the deluge that
destroys the universe at the end of the kalpa (cosmic cycle). In a brief comparison
of deluge stories from Near Eastern, Indian, and classical Greek and Latin lit-
eratures, Magnone 2000 considers the possibility of the stories’ common origin.
González-Reimann 2006b compares versions of the Fish story from various sourc-
es that span the centuries—from the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa and the Mahābhārata to
the Matsya and Bhāgavata Purāṇas—noting how early Vedic ritualism gives way
to devotionalism as Viṣṇu is conceptualized as the world’s savior and devotion
to him inspires his compassion in the form of the Matsya avatāra. Most recently,
Jaiswal 2016 notes that Hayagrīva has both divine and demoniacal forms in the
epics and purāṇas, and she argues that the “fierce aspect of Hayagrīva has to be
traced to the absorption of an aboriginal deity of the Maṇikūṭa region in the
personality of this incarnation of Viṣṇu . . . . through the mediation of Buddhism”
(p. 198). She further suggests that the “animistic cult of a theriomorphic deity at
Hajo first became a part of Mantrayāna Buddhism and was later appropriated by
Vaiṣṇavism,” and that this “local tribal cult of Assam” was then “universalized
upon its assimilation into Tantric Buddhism” which spread into East and South-
east Asia (p. 198).
Viṣṇu’s Tortoise avatāra, Kūrma appears in the famous episode of the churn-
ing of the ocean, when the gods are seeking the nectar of immortality and Viṣṇu’s
tortoise shell supports the sinking mountain used for churning the sea. When the
asuras initially seize the ambrosia, Viṣṇu takes the beautiful but deluding form of
Mohinī, and thus recovers the nectar for the gods. The Kūrma avatāra remains
less studied than others, but Rüping 1970 is a brief monograph in German that
examines the story in the Viṣṇu, Padma, and Bhāgavata Purāṇas, and considers fur-
ther developments in other Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva purāṇas, including the Liṅga and
Śiva. Gonda 1954 selectively discusses the classical avatāras—Kūrma and Vāmana
briefly, Varāha and Kṛṣṇa at some length—as well as other associated forms and
figures (such as Śeṣa and Arjuna) and reflects on the continuities between the
vedic Viṣṇu and the later avatāras.
Varāha is Viṣṇu’s Boar avatāra who dives into the ocean and rescues the Earth
from sinking, images of which date to the Kushana period, in the first to second
centuries CE (Couture 2012b). Couture also notes passages in the Harivaṃśa and
purāṇas that describe the Boar as sacrifice “(yajñavarāha), the various parts of
his body being correlated with ritual and cosmic elements” (2012b). Prasad 1989
examines the early history of this story in the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata, and
in select passages from numerous purāṇas, and says the myth developed in two
phases, with the identification of Varāha as an avatāra of Viṣṇu coming later,

when the basic cosmogonic myth was interpreted through the theory that Viṣṇu
descends periodically to restore dharma and eliminate evil. Biardeau 1981 simi-
larly compares Brahmā as the cosmogonic boar with Varāha as the avatāric boar
(pp. 44-66). Granoff 2004 is a study of Śiva in relation to the Vaiṣṇava avatāras,
especially Varāha and Narasimha, in the early Skanda Purāṇa.
Narasiṃha is Viṣṇu’s avatāra in the form of a Man-Lion, embodied thus to kill
the demon Hiraṇyakaśipu, whose austerities gained him Brahmā’s favor, protect-
ing him from being killed by a variety of known beings—hence Viṣṇu’s unusual
incarnation as half man, half lion. The classical narrative is well known and found
in numerous purāṇas, but Narasiṃha has also become a popular deity in Andhra
Pradesh, with local stories and traditions dramatically transforming his purāṇic
character and endearing him to devotees. Together Biardeau 1975a and Biardeau
1975b show how the violent avatāra depicted in the Viṣṇu and the Bhāgavata
Purāṇas is transformed into an auspicious and accessible god in contemporary
practice, as Vaiṣṇava bhakti in shrines across Andhra Pradesh takes priority over
the murderous defense of dharma portrayed in the purāṇas. Murty 1997 likewise
studies Narasiṃha in the local traditions of Andhra Pradesh, arguing that the
brahmanical avatāra of Viṣṇu becomes subordinated to popular culture, even as
the tribal deity Narasiṃha (associated with forests, caves, and mountains) is inte-
grated into Vaiṣṇavism more broadly. Jaiswal 2016 discusses two varieties of the
myth—one involving a mountain cave and the other a pillar—and she argues that
the “story of Narasiṃha’s emergence from a pillar reflects the supersession of an
aboriginal worship of a pillar deity by Vaiṣṇavism through the cult of Narasiṃha.”
She cites the Narasiṃha temple at Simhachalam, north of Vishakhapatnam in
Andhra Pradesh, as evidence (p. 186). Vemsani 2009 examines temple myths, ritu-
al practices, and folk mythologies to show that diverse representations in Andhra
Pradesh portray Narasiṃha as someone who lived among them (p. 50) and who
cares for people personally in their everyday lives, thus accounting for his great
popularity as a local deity.
Vāmana is Viṣṇu’s Dwarf avatāra, a story based on the account of Viṣṇu’s
three strides in the Ṛgveda. In the popular later story, Viṣṇu assumes the form of
a brāhmaṇa with dwarf proportions in order to subdue the asura-king Bali, whose
power over the three worlds was threatening even the gods. When Vāmana
appears and asks Bali for a favor—namely, the land that could be covered by three
of Vāmana’s steps—Bali consents, and Vāmana’s first two steps cover the earth
and sky before he steps on Bali’s head, subduing his pride and depriving him
of land and power. Kuiper 1962 discusses the three strides of Viṣṇu in accounts
found in the Ṛgveda and the Brāhmaṇas, and contends that already in the Ṛgveda
Viṣṇu represents the totality of the cosmos and is the supporting pillar upon
which the entire universe rests. Tripathi 1968 provides a substantial study (in Ger-
man) of the development of the Vāmana legend from Vedic through purāṇic lit-
erature, examining the story in the epics and the Harivaṃśa, various purāṇas (such
as Matsya, Vāmana, Kūrma, Bhāgavata, and Skanda), and other minor Vaiṣṇava
and Śaiva texts. Soifer 1991 explores Vedic antecedents of the Vāmana story in
a detailed comparative study of Vāmana and Narasiṃha in the Sanskrit purāṇas,
including translations of numerous purāṇic versions in her appendices; she also
considers the violent, animalistic form of Narasiṃha in contrast to the brāhmaṇa
Vāmana. Hospital 1984 is a monograph on Bali that follows the development of
the story in a broad survey of literature from the epics and purāṇas to twentieth-
century treatments in Indian vernaculars, showing how Bali is transformed from
an asura into a devotee as bhakti becomes central to the narrative.
Born in the Bhārgava clan as the son of Jamadagni and Reṇukā, Paraśurāma
(Rāma with the Axe, also called Rāma Jāmadagnya) is celebrated as a brāhmaṇa
avatāra of Viṣṇu, descended to annihilate the malevolent kṣatriya varṇa. An obedi-
ent but clever son, Paraśurāma also decapitates his own mother, after his father
sees Reṇukā watching a gandharva bathing naked in a river and orders his sons to
kill her for her infidelity. But a boon secured from his father allows him to restore
his mother’s life. Biardeau 1968 reads epic and purāṇic versions of the Reṇukā
story through the lens of the Reṇukā Māhātmya (an appendix to the Skanda Purāṇa)
and reflects on the contrast between the dharma of brāhmaṇas and kṣatriyas, the
former embracing the ideal of ahiṃsā while making kṣatriyas and avatāras respon-
sible for the inevitable violence required to maintain social order. Fitzgerald 2010
compares Reṇukā’s decapitation to the Cirakārin story in Mahābhārata 12.258, in
which a son, ordered by his father to decapitate his mother, delays and then his
father relents; Fitzgerald reads the Cirakārin story as a commentarial variant on
Paraśurāma’s. Fitzgerald 2002 examines 130 references to Paraśurāma in the criti-
cal edition of the Mahābhārata, and compares Rāma Jāmadagnya to Yudhiṣṭhira,
noting that both stories justify violence for the maintenance of world order.
Choudhary 2010 studies the Paraśurāma legend in diverse versions -- from
ancient and medieval texts to folk narratives, performances, and temple myths --
in an effort to delineate a social history of the story and its strategic uses by vari-
ous groups. Gail 1977 is a monograph (in German) that examines the origin and
development of the Paraśurāma story in the Sanskrit epics and numerous purāṇas,
and Dejenne 2009 discusses a modern Hindi poem (mahākāvya). Based on a study
of both the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, Thomas 1996 examines Paraśurāma’s
intervention in the affairs of later avatāras, namely Rāma and Krishna (p. 63), and
concludes that his appearances at three yugānta marks him as the guardian of
such cosmic transitions, the passage from one yuga to the next.
The Rāmāyaṇa is well known throughout India and beyond, but whether Rāma
was originally a human hero and only later deified, either as an avatāra of Viṣṇu
or as the supreme God himself, continues to be disputed among scholars of both
Indian epics. An early but influential argument for a theory of stages in Rāma’s
deification, and thus a theory of interpolations in the epic narrative, is found
in Jacobi 1893. Brockington 1984 and 1998 similarly posit an “evolution” in the
development Rāma’s character from a human hero to an avatāra of Viṣṇu. In his
general introduction to the Princeton translation of the critical edition, R. Gold-
man 1984 likewise asserts that the “deification of Rāma appears to belong to the
very latest stratum of the conflated epic” (p. 43); key aspects of Vaiṣṇava bhakti
were thus not central to the early narrative. By contrast, Pollock 1984b contends
that Rāma’s divinity is intrinsic to even the earliest core of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa,
which expresses a “political-theological orientation” (p. 523) in presenting Rāma
as the divine king who saves the world from evil and thus fulfills the soteriologi-
cal functions typical of Viṣṇu’s later avatāras, antecedents for which Pollock finds
in vedic literature. González-Reimann 2006a refutes Pollock’s claims regarding
Rāma’s divinity in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, whereas Hiltebeitel 2003 asserts Rāma’s
divine status and contends that the avatāra is central to the Rāmāyaṇa’s concep-
tion of divinity and that the avatāra and the divine king have similar protective
functions in the brahmanical order. R. Goldman 1980 discusses Rāma and his
brothers, the four sons of Daśaratha, as a “composite avatāra” of Viṣṇu in the
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, each brother with distinct personality traits that inform the
overall epic hero. As a social historian, Jaiswal 2016 reads the “cult history” of
Rāma, beginning in the ninth century in South India, as a story of brahmanical
ideology propagated through bhakti, sometimes in sharp opposition to Jain-
ism and Buddhism (pp. 156-160). Reflecting on Hindu conceptions of prophecy
and a future golden-age, González-Reimann 2013 notes that the avatāra Kalki’s
significance as victorious warrior-savior declines over time as Rāma typically
fulfills this role from roughly the twelfth century when Muslim rule is established
(p. 111), just as Rāma remains central in Hindu nationalist discourse today (p.
116). Although Hanumān is generally viewed as an exemplary Rāma-bhakta, he
is also worshipped as an avatāra of Rudra-Śiva, according to Lutgendorf 2007
and 2012. Lutgendorf is currently working on a seven-volume translation of the
Rāmcaritmānas by Tulsīdās for the Murty Classical Library (2016-). Because the
avatāra is a paradigmatically masculine figure—as warrior, savior, king, son, hus-

band, father, yogin, lover, and/or exemplar of dharma—studies such as R. Goldman
2004, and S. Goldman 2001 and 2004 examine aspects of Rāma’s masculinity in the
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, especially in relation to his dharma as king and his treatment
of Sītā; and Coleman 2014 compares Kṛṣṇa and the Buddha as yogins, models of
dharma, and irresistible (but unattainable) beloveds in Sanskrit kāvya.
The divinity of Kṛṣṇa in the epic Mahābhārata has also been debated among
scholars, who propose various theories about his status as an avatāra and his asso-
ciation with Vedic deities such as Viṣṇu and Indra and the cosmic god Nārāyaṇa.
Malinar 2007 and 2012 underscore that not until the Harivaṃśa and the Viṣṇu
Purāṇa is Kṛṣṇa conceptualized as an avatāra of Viṣṇu, although earlier textual
and iconographic evidence described in Härtel 1987 and Srinivasan 1997 suggest
that Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa was already worshipped by Bhāgavatas as the supreme God
before the avatāra theory developed (see also Malinar 2007, pp. 251-257). Malinar
2007 also cautions that the “later interpretation of Kṛṣṇa as a form of Viṣṇu must
not be projected on to the Bhagavadgītā” (p. 173). If Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa was already
viewed as the highest god in early centuries BCE, his identification as an avatāra
of Viṣṇu in the Gupta period does not represent his later deification, but rather
his incorporation into a larger Vaiṣṇava pantheon and theology. Such a perspec-
tive would seem to undermine arguments by Brockington 1998, for example,
who interprets Kṛṣṇa and Rāma as deified heroes according to historical layers
in epic and purāṇic narrative, so that devotion to them as avatāras of Viṣṇu is a
later development in epic redaction. In the same vein, González-Reimann 2002
explores the avatāra theory in relation to the yugas in the Mahābhārata, arguing
that neither concept is central to the early narrative core and that both were
employed in the “Vaiṣṇava appropriation” of the epic by which Kṛṣṇa-Nārāyaṇa
is conceptualized as the supreme God who periodically appears in time to restore
dharma. In sharp contrast to such views, Alf Hiltebeitel has argued for nearly
forty years that Kṛṣṇa’s divinity is central to the epic, thus rejecting analyses
that relegate Kṛṣṇa to the periphery (via theories of interpolation, for example),
and claiming that bhakti is not a later development in the narrative (1979 and
2011). With respect to the epic author and character Vyāsa as avatāra, see Sain-
don 2004-05 and Sullivan 1999, especially Chapter 4, ‘Vyāsa as Brahmā on Earth’
(pp. 81-101). In a broad study bridging epic and purāṇic sources, Matchett 2001
employs the concept of avatāra in order to examine the relationship between
Kṛṣṇa and Viṣṇu in the Harivaṃśa, the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, and the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, giv-
ing attention to various avatāra lists in each text and to different Sanskrit terms
describing Kṛṣṇa’s embodied forms and descents. Viethsen 2009 discusses the
reasons given in Harivaṃśa 40–45 for Viṣṇu’s descent, and Couture 2003 reflects on
the ritual significance of Dvārakā as the avatāra’s city according to the Harivaṃśa,
and he compares such divine abodes to sacrificial altars, ritually appearing
and disappearing with the avatāra. Corcoran 1995 discusses the relationship
between Viṣṇu and Kṛṣṇa, the concept of avatāra, and the nature of Kṛṣṇa and
Vṛndāvana in purāṇic and later sectarian literature, both Sanskrit and Braj Bhāṣā.
In a study focused on bhakti and embodiment in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and Gauḍīya
Vaiṣṇavism, Holdrege 2015 considers the limitless forms of Kṛṣṇa’s divine body;
the Bhāgavata Purāṇa as text-avatāra, the divine name as sound-avatāra, and Vraja
as place-avatāra; and she explores how human beings in devotional bodies engage
dynamically with these divine bodies in various practices of Kṛṣṇa-bhakti.
Whether the Buddha is considered the ninth avatāra of Viṣṇu or not, basic
similarities clearly exist between Siddhārtha Gautama as buddha and Kṛṣṇa and
Rāma as avatāras, for each enters the world to teach dharma and to offer a path to
salvation. Some scholars therefore claim that competition accounts for the Bud-
dha’s being incorporated into the Vaiṣṇava pantheon, simultaneously subordinat-
ed to Viṣṇu yet demonized as the avatāra who deludes beings by false teachings.
Doniger O’Flaherty 1976—especially in Chapter 7, “The Corruption of Demons
and Men: The False Avatar”—discusses the stories of Raji, the Triple City, and
Divodāsa before reflecting in some detail on the historical context of the Vaiṣṇava
Buddha avatāra, his relationship with Kalkin, and the Kali Yuga more generally.
After reviewing purāṇic avatāra lists that include the Buddha, Saindon 2004 finds
a brahmanical strategy in the purāṇic claim that the Buddha is an avatāra of Viṣṇu
and says that the popularity of the Buddha and his anti-Vedic teachings prompted
a brahmanical appropriation as a means of subverting his message. More broadly
and with respect to Jainism, Jaini 1993 argues that Kṛṣṇa and Rāma were origi-
nally human heroes celebrated widely in India, but were only later claimed as
Hindu gods, avatāras of Viṣṇu, which then provoked Jainas to claim them as spe-
cifically Jaina heroes and subordinate them to Jinas. Jaini 1977 relates the Jaina
understanding of Ṛṣabha as the first Tīrthaṅkara, a king become mendicant who
established the order of naked ascetics; Jaini also discusses the Bhāgavata Purāṇa’s
appropriation of Ṛṣabha as an avatāra of Viṣṇu who glorifies brāhmaṇas and thus
challenges the authority of śramaṇas. Geen 2009 compares Kṛṣṇa traditions in Hin-
duism and Jainism and suggests that their mythologies were mutually influential,
with Jaina traditions affecting Vaiṣṇava conceptions of the avatāra. Couture 2012b
notes that the Buddha was regarded as an avatāra of Viṣṇu by perhaps 550 CE,
after which this claim becomes more widespread.
The tenth of the daśāvatāra, the brāhmaṇa Kalki or Kalkin will appear at the
end of the current Kali Yuga to destroy foreigners (mlecchas) and heretics, and
then restore proper order by performing a horse sacrifice before ushering in
the new Kṛta Yuga. Described first in the Mahābhārata and then identified as an
avatāra of Viṣṇu, Kalki later becomes the destroyer of Buddhism in the eleventh-
century Vaiṣṇava Kalki Purāṇa, and in the Buddhist Kālacakra Tantra from roughly
the same period, Kalki becomes a Buddhist savior allied with Hindu gods to
fight foreigners, specifically Muslims (see González-Reimann 2013, pp. 111-113).
González-Reimann 2013 also describes how conceptions of the Kṛta or Satya Yuga
and the savior Kalki become spiritualized and universalized towards the end of
the nineteenth century, when savior-figures from Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam
are conflated into a single spiritual teacher, paving the way for similarly universal
claims about twentieth-century gurus (pp. 115-116).
Historical Avatāras and Global Gurus
Beyond epic and purāṇic accounts of warrior-saviors are the lives of histori-
cal figures regarded by some as avatāras, often identified with the more familiar
anglicized term, avatar: among them the medieval Bengali saint Caitanya, and
modern gurus Sathya Sai Baba, Ānandamayī Mā, and Mātā Amṛtānandamayī,
more commonly known as Ammachi.
Caitanya
The Bengali saint Caitanya (1486–1533) is remembered as an ecstatic mystic
intoxicated by the name and vision of Kṛṣṇa, and his distinctive devotional prac-
tices continue to inspire contemporary devotees in India and beyond, including
those involved in ISKCON. Dimock 1999 is an English translation of Kṛṣṇadāsa
Kavirāja’s Caitanya Caritāmṛta, a key text for Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism that presents
Caitanya as an avatāra of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā in one body. Stewart 2010 explores the
genre of hagiography as a theological and political tool and shows how the Cait-
anya Caritāmṛta synthesized various theories about Caitanya’s divinity in order to
compose a coherent set of doctrines and practices that unified Caitanya’s follow-
ers and became authoritative for Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism. Stewart 1991 examines dif-
fering accounts of Caitanya’s death in sixteenth-century hagiographies in view of
the “orthodox position” that Caitanya, as an avatāra of Kṛṣṇa, simply descended to
earth and later ascended to Vaikuṇṭha. In a study of nāmkīrtan, Caitanya’s ecstatic
singing of Kṛṣṇa’s names, Hein 1976 addresses the theological claim in Gauḍīya
Vaiṣṇavism that Kṛṣṇa himself is present during such devotional chanting, as if
the name itself were “an avatāra of the Lord in the form of syllables” (p. 29); alter-
natively, the singer becomes an āveśāvatāra, one possessed by Kṛṣṇa.
Sathya Sai Baba

Known for his miracles, big hair, and long scarlet robes, Sathya Sai Baba (1926-
2011) was a popular figure among India’s urban middle class and a global religious
icon as well. Based on fieldwork at Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram in Puttaparthi, and in
Bangalore, Atlanta, and Nairobi, Srinivas 2008 investigates how Sathya Sai Baba
progressively became guru, sant and global avatar within a context of modern
urbanization and globalization, exploring how devotion is embodied in trans-
national religious economies. Urban 2003 reflects on globalization in relation to
indigenous traditions through an analysis of the contradictions embodied in Sai
Baba: his seeming embrace of capitalism and consumer culture alongside his con-
servative, anti-Western rhetoric upholding traditional caste, gender, and religious
values. Klass 1991 is an anthropological study of the movement in Trinidad that
considers Sathya Sai Baba’s reception among different ethnic and religious groups
in light of his own claims to be a universal avatāra, with attention to caste and
hierarchy and their roles in this movement of “revitalization.”
Ānandamayī Mā
Among women considered divine, Ānandamayī Mā (1896-1982), the “mother
whose nature is bliss,” was born in the village Kheorā in what is now Bangladesh.
Hallstrom 1999 is a monograph based on interviews with devotees, archival mate-
rials, and sacred biographies, that explores Ānandamayī Mā’s ambiguous identity
in terms of familiar categories, including woman, saint, guru, avatāra, and divine
mother, with attention to gender and the phenomenon of descent/incarnation
in the female body. Aymard 2014 explores the meaning of the avatāra’s death, and
argues that the worship of Mā’s tomb in Kankhal, a town near Haridwar in Utta-
rakhand state, is effectively a cult of relics that reflects the power of the divine
feminine and the authority of Mā as a woman guru, which Aymard says marks a
change in Hinduism that may become more significant as women gurus develop a
global following.
Ammachi
One such popular and globally known woman guru is Mātā Amṛtānandamayī
(also Ammachi or simply Amma, “Mother”). Born in 1953 in Kerala, South India,
Ammachi is known as the “hugging saint” because of her distinctive form of
darśan that entails embracing all who come to see her, offering everyone a
mother’s healing unconditional love. Still based in Kerala but popular around the
world, Ammachi embarks on a global tour each year that attracts thousands of
devotees outside of India. Warrier 2005 insightfully situates guru bhakti within the
context of modern globalization in an ethnographic study based on fieldwork in
Kerala, Delhi, and London that explores Ammachi’s teachings and intimate acces-
sibility and her urban transnational following of largely middle-class devotees. Raj
2004 is a brief article that discusses Ammachi’s programs in the United States and
considers her role as a woman/goddess in relation to gender norms in Hindu tra-
ditions. Lucia 2014 likewise examines Ammachi’s organization and her devotees
in the United States, highlighting Amma’s incarnation of Devī and her efforts to
empower women, which Lucia argues are interpreted differently by Indian Hin-
dus and American devotees, as the latter see a “feminist politics” in Ammachi’s
life and work, while the former read Amma through the lens of advaita-vedāntic
perspectives. Thus “problematiz[ing] the relationship between feminism, goddess
worship, and the everyday realities of human women” (p. 35), Lucia challenges
dominant discourses of multiculturalism based on differing interpretations of
Amma’s role as avatāra among women.
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yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata /

Whenever dharma declines and adharma flourishes,

to dharma remain foundational to the social structure. Many studies discussed

Daśāvatāra—The Ten Descents of Viṣṇu

phases, with the identification of Varāha as an avatāra of Viṣṇu coming later,

avatāra is a paradigmatically masculine figure—as warrior, savior, king, son, hus-

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