AvatarAvatar (अवतार, ; ɐʋɐt̪aːɾɐ) is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes used to refer to any guru or revered human being. The word avatar does not appear in the Vedic literature; however, it appears in developed forms in post-Vedic literature, and as a noun particularly in the Puranic literature after the 6th century CE.
BadrinathBadrinath is a town and nagar panchayat in Chamoli district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is a Hindu holy place, and is one of the four sites in India's Char Dham . It is also part of India's Chota Char Dham pilgrimage circuit and gets its name from the Badrinath Temple. Badrinath derives from the Sanskrit compound Badarīnātha, consisting of the terms badarī (jujube tree) and nātha (lord), an epithet of Vishnu. It is also known as Badarikashrama. Badrinath was re-established as a major pilgrimage site by Adi Shankara in the 8th century.
MatsyaMatsya (मत्स्य, lit. fish) is the fish avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. Often described as the first of Vishnu's ten primary avatars, Matsya is described to have rescued the first man, Manu, from a great deluge. Matsya may be depicted as a giant fish, often golden in color, or anthropomorphically with the torso of Vishnu connected to the rear half of a fish. The earliest account of Matsya is found in the Shatapatha Brahmana, where Matsya is not associated with any particular deity.
Varaha| gender = Male Varaha (वराह, ) is an avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu, in the form of a wild boar. Varaha is generally listed as third in the Dashavatara, the ten principal avatars of Vishnu. Varaha is most commonly associated with the legend of lifting the earth (personified as the goddess Bhudevi) out of the cosmic ocean. When the asura Hiranyaksha stole the earth and hid her in the primordial waters, Vishnu appeared as Varaha to rescue her.
TyagarajaThyagaraja (Telugu: త్యాగరాజ) (4 May 1767 – 6 January 1847), also known as Thyāgayya and in full as Kakarla Thyagabrahmam, was a composer and vocalist of Carnatic music, a form of Indian classical music. Tyagaraja and his contemporaries, Shyama Shastri and Muthuswami Dikshitar, are regarded as the Trinity of Carnatic music. Tyagaraja composed thousands of devotional compositions, most in Telugu and in praise of Rama, many of which remain popular today, the most popular being "Nagumomu".
KrishnaKrishna (ˈkrɪʃnə; Sanskrit: कृष्ण, ˈkr̩ʂɳɐ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one of the most popular and widely revered among Hinduism divinities. Krishna's birthday is celebrated every year by Hindus on Krishna Janmashtami according to the lunisolar Hindu calendar, which falls in late August or early September of the Gregorian calendar.
ParashuramaParashurama (Paraśurāma), also referred to as Rama Jamadagnya, Rama Bhargava and Veerarama, is the sixth avatar among the Dashavatara of the preserver god Vishnu in Hinduism. He is believed to be one of the Chiranjeevis (Immortals), who will appear at the end of the Kali Yuga to be the guru of Vishnu's tenth and last incarnation, Kalki. Born to Jamadagni and Renuka, the Brahmin Parashurama was foretold to appear at a time when overwhelming evil prevailed on the earth.
VyasaKrishna Dvaipayana (Kṛṣṇadvaipāyana), better known as Vyasa (ˈvjɑːsə; Vyāsaḥ) or Vedavyasa (वेदव्यासः, Veda-vyāsaḥ, "the one who classified the Vedas"), is a revered sage portrayed in most Hindu traditions. He is traditionally regarded as the author of the epic Mahabharata. Vyasa is also regarded by many Hindus as a partial incarnation (aṃśa-avatāra) of the god Vishnu and the compiler of the mantras of the Vedas into four Vedas, as well as the author of the eighteen Puranas and the Brahma Sutras.
NarasimhaNarasimha (नरसिंह, ), sometimes rendered Narasingha, is the fourth avatara of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is had incarnated in the form of a part-lion, part-man being to kill Hiranyakashipu, to end religious persecution and calamity on earth, thereby restoring dharma and Narasimha killed Hiranyakashipu. Narasimha is often depicted with three eyes, and is described in Vaishnavism to be the God of Destruction; he who destroys the entire universe at the time of the great dissolution (Mahapralaya).
ShriShri (ʃriː; श्री, ɕriː) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific. The word is widely used in South and Southeast Asian languages such as Assamese, Marathi, Malay (including Indonesian and Malaysian), Javanese, Balinese, Sundanese, Sinhala, Thai, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Bengali, Nepali, Malayalam, Kannada, Sanskrit, Pali, Khmer, and also among Philippine languages. It is usually transliterated as Sri, Sree, Shri, Shiri, Shree, Si, or Seri based on the local convention for transliteration.
