Explore the pantheons

Krishna's elder brother, wielder of the plough, counted in most lists as an avatar of the world-serpent Shesha, though some traditions name him an avatar of Vishnu himself. He sat out the Kurukshetra war, refusing to fight either side.

The avatar yet to come: a rider on a white horse with a blazing sword who will end the dark age of Kali Yuga, destroy the corrupt, and begin the cycle of ages anew.

The tortoise avatar of Vishnu, whose shell bore the weight of Mount Mandara so that gods and demons could churn the ocean of milk for the nectar of immortality.

Vishnu's fish avatar, who warned Manu of the coming deluge and towed his ship to safety over the flood, saving humankind, the sages, and the Vedas themselves.

The man-lion avatar who burst from a pillar at twilight, neither man nor beast, indoors nor out, to disembowel the demon king Hiranyakashipu on his own threshold, exploiting every loophole in the tyrant's boon of invulnerability.

The axe-wielding warrior-sage avatar who annihilated the kshatriya warrior class twenty-one times over to avenge his father's murder. An immortal who later appears as a teacher in both epics.

The dwarf avatar who asked the demon king Mahabali for three paces of land, then grew to cosmic size and covered heaven and earth in two strides, claiming the king's own head for the third.

The boar avatar who dove into the cosmic waters to lift the drowned earth on his tusks, slaying the demon Hiranyaksha who had sunk her.