Varāha Avatāra (Matsya Purāṇa)

The Matsya Mahā Purāṇa tells the Varāha Avatāra in Chapters 246–247. The ṛshi Śaunaka tells it to Arjuna, inside the larger talk between Bhagavān Matsya and Manu. The account begins with the pralaya (the dissolution of the world at the end of a kalpa). It then tells how Bhūdevī, the earth, sinks into the primordial waters. Last, Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa takes the great Varāha (boar) form to go down into Rasātala. The stotra of Bhūdevī in these chapters is one of the richest passages in the Matsya Purāṇa.

The pralaya

Śaunaka begins with what happens at the end of a kalpa (one day of Brahmā, which is one thousand divine yugas).

Every being is consumed: Viśvedevas, Sādhyas, Rudras, Ādityas, Aśvinī devas, Prajāpatis, the seven Mahārshis, the Vasus, Maruts, Gandharvas, Yakshas, Rākshasas, Piśācas, Nāgas, the four varṇas, countless animals and birds, and all moving creatures. Bhagavān Vishṇu himself, in the form of the three-flamed Agni (jvālātrayayukta agni), burns up all creation with his flame. The Vedas, Vedāṅgas, Upanishads, Purāṇas, Itihāsas, all the vidyās and all karma are consumed too. The thirty-three crore deva-gaṇas, and even Brahmā himself at the end of Brahmā’s day, dissolve into the great Mahātattva-rūpa, the imperishable Nārāyaṇa, who is the refuge of all jīvas.

When the time for the new rising comes, what had dissolved rises again. This cycle of dissolution and creation is like the setting and rising of the sun. (Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 246)

Nārāyaṇa in the waters of the pralaya

When all creation has dissolved into the primordial Nārāyaṇa, Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa lies in yogic sleep on the causal waters. He is described like this:

  • He wears yellow garments (pītāmbara).
  • His eyes are red (raktanetra).
  • He is dark as a rain-cloud (nīlameghavarṇa).
  • His masses of matted hair blaze with a thousand flames.
  • His chest is adorned with the Śrīvatsa mark and red sandalwood paste.
  • His arms are long, like a great cloud.
  • His body is garlanded with thousands of lotuses.

Lakshmī-devī wraps around his form and stays with him.

In this state of nidra-yoga (yogic sleep), Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, calm in spirit and comforter of all worlds, rests for a divine thousand yugas, which is one cosmic night. When the night ends, he wakes and thinks on the new creation, planning all that it must hold. (Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 246)

Bhūdevī sinks into Rasātala

With the new creation, Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa brings forth the golden egg (hiraṇmayāṇḍa), from which Meru comes out, and from that the earth with her thousands of mountains. But the earth is weighed down by billions of mountains and pierced by the divine tejas (radiance) of Vishṇu’s own creative power. She cannot bear the weight. Like a weak cow sinking in mud, she begins to go down into Rasātala (the world below).

Bhagavān Vishṇu sees Bhūdevī sinking. He is moved by compassion to save her, and he speaks to her: “O Vasudhā! You are a tāpasvī (a worthy one, deserving of compassion). You are sinking into Rasātala under the weight of my tejas. I shall lift you up.” (Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 247)

Bhūdevī’s stotra to Nārāyaṇa

Bhūdevī praises Bhagavān Vishṇu in a remarkable stotra, a series of identifications of him with the cosmos.

She calls him Trivikrama (who took the three worlds in his steps), Mahāvarāha (the great boar) and Sūrottama (the best of the devas), the bearer of the śārṅga bow, the cakra, the sword (asi) and the gadā (mace).

She says: “From your body this world was born. By your grace Indra enjoys svarga. By your anger the whole of creation is scattered.”

Then she lists what he is, seeing all creation as one great divine tree:

  • Its branches are the three worlds of the devas, its flowers the beautiful forest forms, its leaves the women of the devas, its fruit the divine realms.
  • Its great trunk is Satyaloka, its roots are the primordial Śesha, its insects and birds are its dependants, and its fragrance is Śīla, Ācāra and the Āryas.

She names the twelve Ādityas as the islands (dvīpas), the eleven Rudras as the cities (paṭṭaṇas), the eight Vasus as the mountains, the three worlds as the waters, and the Siddhas and Sādhyas as the waves of the ocean, and so on for every part of creation. All of it is Nārāyaṇa.

She gives the meaning of his names:

  • Nārāyaṇa: because the primordial waters (nāra) were his āyana (home) before creation.
  • Govinda: because in each yuga he wins back (vindate) the cow, which is dharma and the earth.
  • Hṛshīkeśa: because he is the master (īśa) of the hṛshīkas (senses).
  • Vāsudeva: because all beings live (vasanti) in him.
  • Saṃkarshaṇa: because at each dissolution he draws (saṃkarshati) all beings back into himself.
  • Pradyumna: because he is known (pradi-vid) in his full form by the dharmas of all three worlds.
  • Aniruddha: because no being can hold back (nirodha) or conquer him.
  • Acyuta: because he is never moved (na cyavati) from his place.
  • Hari: because he takes away (harati) even Brahmā, Indra and Rudra.
  • Sanātana: because he is always (sadā) joined with his body, his fame and his śrī.
  • Ananta: because Brahmā and the great ṛshis cannot reach his limits.
  • Akshara: because he never grows less (na ksharati) even over hundreds of crores of kalpas.
  • Vishṇu: because all beings enter (viśanti) into him and he enters into all beings.

She ends: “O Nārāyaṇa! In every yuga you yourself bring it about that the burden of the earth is taken away. In the Kṛta, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali yugas you are white (the colour of the campaka flower), green (harita), red and black, in that order. Save me. I have taken shelter in you alone.” (Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 247)

The great Varāha form

Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa was pleased with Bhūdevī’s stotra and moved by her distress. He thought about what form he should take to go down into Rasātala and lift the earth. He chose the Varāha (boar) form, which suits moving through water, and took a body that was:

  • One hundred yojanas wide and two hundred yojanas tall
  • Dark as a rain-cloud (nīlamegha)
  • With a thunderous roar like storm clouds
  • Firm as a mountain
  • With fearsome, white, sharp tusks (śveta-tīkshṇa-bhayaṃkara-daṃshṭra)
  • With the radiance of lightning and fire together
  • Like the sun in tejas
  • With rolling, massive, round shoulders
  • Moving with the stride of a proud lion
  • With mighty hips and all the marks of a great bull (mahāvṛshabha-lakshaṇa)

This form was such that no being could see it directly. It was of the nature of Vāk (divine speech) and was rooted in Parabrahman.

The Varāha entered Rasātala.

The Varāha as the yajña

The text then gives the well-known identification of the Varāha’s body parts with the parts of the Vedic yajña:

  • Vedas: feet
  • Yūpa posts: tusks (daṃshṭrā)
  • Kratu rites: teeth
  • Vedī (altar): face
  • Agnis: tongue
  • Darbha grass: body hair
  • Brahman (the praṇava, OM): head
  • Day and night: eyes
  • Vedāṅgas: ear ornaments
  • Ājya (ghee): nose
  • Sruva (ladle): snout
  • Sāma sound, Satya and Dharma: the measured steps of the feet
  • Prāyaścitta (rites of atonement): nails
  • The animals of the yajña: knees
  • Yajña: his whole body form

By this identification the Varāha is not only a physical form but is all the Vedic yajña: the cosmic yajña walking in boar form to save the earth. (Matsya Purāṇa, Chapter 247)

Sources

  • Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 246 (the pralaya, Nārāyaṇa in the waters)
  • Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 247 (Bhūdevī sinks, her stotra, the Varāha form, the Varāha as yajña)