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14. THE CONCEPT OF AVATARS
Visnu Purana 1.4.45-50 states: "He then rescued the earth and reestablished it floating over the ocean like a large ship. After planing the earth, he adorned it with mountains and then divided it into seven continents. After this, the god Hari, taking the shape of four faced Brahma and in accordance with the rajas created life"
In Taittiriya Samhita 7.1.5 it says: "This universe was formerly fluid. All was water. Over it Prajapathi moved in the form of wind. He saw the earth. Becoming a boar, he lifted her. Becoming Viswa-Karma, he planed her. She extended. Hence earth is called Prthvi"
Thus if we go through the various versions in Puranas and Samhita we have the Boar as incarnation of Vishnu, Prajapathi, Hari, Brahma, Viswakarma etc. We may conclude that all these were transformed into one personality which later came to be called as Vishnu.
According the Wikepeida, the deluge occurred during the period between 1,918,143,100 B.C. to 1,916,463,100 B.C., the Varaha Avathar must have occurred on the fourth day of the 2nd month of 1,916,463,100 B.C. as per the Pauranic calendar about 2 billion years ago! The Earth is accepted by scientists to be around 4.5 billion years old. There are too many contradictions in time and story that we will have to take the myth as a myth and try to see what it is really trying to tell us.
The Varaha Avatar is worshipped only in the Andhra Pradesh area. The oldest temple associated with the Boar Avatar is found in Multan, now in Pakistan.
• The Mahabharata 3.81.15 mentions a Varaha-tirtha in Haryana State where Lord Vishnu
appeared as Varaha.
At the place known as Soronksetra Lord Varaha picked up the earth on His tusk. This place is located south of Delhi After killing the demon Hiranyakasipu, He rested at Vishrama-ghat in Mathura and spoke the Varaha Purana to Mother Earth.
http://varaha.avatara.org/ Historically it is connected with the Indian subcontinent and to the places Multan and Mathura. We cannot esccape from that conclusion. During the life of Bhumi Devi (Earth) under the sea with Hiranyksha, she was with child. But when vishnu in the form of Boar rescued Bhumi it was believed that the child was that of Vishnu. This son, Hiranyksha's son was Narakasura who ruled Assam. There was a doubt about his paternity. However he is called as an Asura, and was an antagonist to Vishnu.
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