Dashavatara
The Dashavatara (Sanskrit: दशावतार, IAST: daśāvatāra) are the ten primary avatars of Vishnu, a principal Hindu god.
The list of included avatars varies across sects and regions, particularly with respect to the inclusion of Balarama (brother of Krishna) or Gautama Buddha.
"Dashavatara" or "daśāvatāra" (दशावतार) means "ten avatars" or "ten incarnations": According to Swami Parmeshwaranand, although the avatars of Vishnu are countless in number and include hermits, Manus, sons of Manus, and other Devas (Hindu Deity), due to a curse by the Rishi Bhrigu, most are only partial (i.e. incomplete) incarnations.
The Agni, Padma, Garuda, Linga, Narada, Skanda and Varaha Puranas mention the common (Krishna, Buddha) Dashavatara list.
The Fish, the Tortoise, the Boar, the Man-lion, the Dwarf, Parasurama, Dasarathi Rama, Balarama, Buddha, and Kalki – thy ten.
[57] Jayadeva, in his Pralaya Payodhi Jale from the Gita Govinda, includes Balarama and Buddha where Krishna is equated with Vishnu and the source of all avatars.
[58]The words from the poem describing ten avataras (translated) are as follows: As a reviver of Vedas as a fish, bearer of this earth as tortoise, uplifter and supporter of earth as wild boar, slasher of Hiranyakashyapa as lion man, deluder of Bali as dwarf boy, annihilator of Kshatriya s as Parashu Rama, conqueror of Ravana, the legatee of Paulastya, as Rama, wielder of plough as bala raama, fosterer of non violence as Buddha, mangler of fractious races as Kalki, you alone can put on ten semblances, thus oh, Krishna, my reverences are unto you.
The Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra mentions the Dashavatara as follows: From the Sun God the Incarnation of Rama, from the Moon that of Krishna, from Mars that of Narasimha, from Mercury that of Buddha, from Jupiter that of Vamana, from Venus that of Parasurama, from Saturn that of Koorma (Tortoise), from Rahu that of Varaha [Boar] and from Ketu that of [Matsya] (fish) occurred.
The beings with more Paramatmamsa [i.e. Rama, Krishna, Narasimha and Varaha] are called divine beings'.Notably, according to the Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra - an important Smriti Sastra or compilation of Indian astrology for prediction (i.e. fortune telling) - although all ten of the Dashavatara have corresponding astrological symbols, only four are considered as divine beings (i.e. Rama, Krishna, Narasimha and Varaha).
[70][71] Bhaktivinoda Thakura proposed the following ordering of the Dashavataras: Blavatsky believed that the avatara-related Hindu texts were an allegorical presentation of Darwinian evolution.
[72] Some Orientalists and reformist Hindus in India picked up this idea to rationalize Hinduism as being consistent with modern science.
Keshub Chandra Sen[74] stated in 1882, The Puranas speak of the different manifestations or incarnations of the Deity in different epochs of the world history.
[75] According to Nanda, the Dashavatara concept has led to some Hindus asserting that their religion is more open to scientific theories, and has not opposed or persecuted scientists midst them like the way Christianity and Islam has.
[70] But, adds Nanda, Hinduism has many cosmological theories and even the Vaishnava one with Dashavatara concept does not explicitly teach evolution of species, rather it states an endless cycles of creationism.
B. S. Haldane (British-Indian scientist) suggested that Dashavatara gave a "rough idea" of vertebrate evolution: a fish, a tortoise, a boar, a man-lion, a dwarf and then four men (Kalki is not yet born).
