Description
In the sequence of Vishnu's ten incarnations, Varaha - the boar, follows his fish and tortoise avatars. Differing texts give various explanations for his taking up the form of a boar. According to one, Vishnu thus transformed himself to rescue the world which was sinking into the ocean, weighed under the burden of its own evil., or, as another text puts it, due to overpopulation and the consequent increase in grain production (a firm warning to the overindulging consumerist society). A third variation however, which is also a creation myth, says that Vishnu picked up a piece of ground from under the ocean and spreading it on a lotus leaf, created the world. This cosmogonic myth is undoubtedly of greater antiquity than the ones which underscore his role as the saviour of the earth.
