Varaha: The third Avatar of Lord Vishnu

• 'Varaha' is his third avatar of Lord Vishnu followed by Kurma avatar and succeeded by Narasimha avatar.
• Vishnu Puran treats Varah as a symbol of sacrifice.
• Varaha is a boar like avatar of Lord Vishnu

Among Dashavatars of Lord Vishnu, 'Varaha' is his third avatar followed by Kurma avatar and succeeded by Narasimha avatar. Varaha is a boar like avatar of Lord Vishnu. Some people also believe that Lord Vishnu was born oh his tusks in this avatar and was capable to lift up the Earth on his tusks after killing the demon.

Here are ten facts about Varaha avatar of Lord Vishnu

• Varaha avatar is first avatar of Lord Vishnu with a head of an animal and rest as human body. While the Matasya and Kurma avatar, depicts frame of a human body while the bottom part depicts animal body.
• Chalukya was the first dynasty to use Varaha avatar engravings on the coins. Varaha was worshipped highly till Muslims came in India. Muslims treat pigs as impure and unclean, from then Varaha worship declined.
• The generation of first millennia treated Varaha as the symbol of manhood. On the other hand, Vishnu Puran treats Varah as a symbol of sacrifice.
• Varaha avatar had been evolved when a devil named Hiranyakshya took earth to the bottom of the ocean. Mother earth, then, asked Lord Vishnu to help her. Lord Vishnu came in Varaha (boar) avatar and defeated Hiranyakshya and carried Earth on his tusks and came out of the ocean.

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• Varaha Avatar helped Earth to come out of the ocean after pralay and in this way started a new cycle of the world.
• According to Vishnu Purana, every part of Varaha has some significance like feet of Varah symbolize Vedas, tusk symbolizes suffering, hair represents grass, joints symbolizes different ceremonies, ears denotes rituals, coarse hairs denotes sexual improves, eyes as day and night and nostrils symbolizes gifts.
• Lord Varaha is worshipped in many parts of Southern India. There are many temples having Varah avatar of Lord Vishnu. Some of the famous temples to Lord Varaha are Tirumala temple, Shri Mooshnam temple, Varah Swamy temple in Secunderabad district of Andhra Pradesh.
• There is a special connection between Varaha and Tirupati temple. If one goes to Tirupati temple, first worship Varah temple in Adi Varah Kshetra of Tirupati then go and take blessings from Tirupati Balaji.

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• To mark the evolution of Varaha Avatar many people celebrate Varaha Avatar Jayanti. On this occasion one would do jagran all the night recalling the stories of Lord Vishnu and his dashavatars. Some people also fast on this day. All those who fast on this day will be worshipping a small statue of Lord Vishnu in Kalash followed by Visarjan.
• One can fiund the engravings of Lord Varaha in Badami (Karnataka), in Ellora caves in Maharashtra, in Varah Cave temple in Mahabalipuram and in Udaygiri Caves in Madhya Pradesh.

-by Aparna Gupta, an intern at NewsGram. Twitter @writetoaparna

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