Vishnu related - Avatars (incarnations) of Lord Vishnu and Lord Siva

 Lord Vishnu

All Hindus know that Lord Vishnu had 9 incarnations and the 10^th one is being awaited. It is said that as and when the Adharma (crimes, cheating etc) is increasing to a high level the Lord Vishnu take avathara birth in the earth. 

 

In the first incarnation as a fish, he protects Manu who is the first of the human race and from his name Manu the word Manushya (human) came into being thereby perpetrating the human race in the earth.

 

In the 2^nd incarnation of Tortoise he protected the churning of the milky ocean to bring out the nectar buy supporting the Manthara Parvath (Mountain) from going down to the bottom of the ocean.

 

The next incarnation of Varaha (wild boar) was to bring out the earth from the bottom of the ocean of sins.

 

The 4^th one of Narasimha was to kill the Hiranyaksha, the personification of vanity, arrogance cruelty and especially to the devotee of Lord Vishnu – the Prahlada who was the son of the killed demon.

 

Next one, the Vamana was again to correct the arrogance of Prahalda's grandson Mahabali who himself also was a devotee of Lord Vishnu. Mahabali was sent to the Patal Loka and made his as the ruler there. 

 

Next is Parasuraman as a sage who kills the rulers 24 times as they were so atrocious to their subjects. 

 

Next is the incarnation of Srirama who killed the demon emperor Ravana who was autocratic and used to usurp anything he likes irrespective the others protests. 

 

8^th avatar is as Balarama elder brother of Srikrishna who is the 9^th one. Balarama's incarnation is to support Srikrishna. Balarama is the one who introduced agriculture in human race by using his plough. 

 

Srikrishna was born to kill his wicked uncle Kamsa and lead the Pandavas, his cousins against the Kauravas who was not allowing the Pandavas to live peacefully. The next that is the 10^th one is expected. 

 

Actually though the belief is that there are only 10 incarnations, the fact is that there are several others in addition to the above ten. Buddha is supposed to be his incarnation so also Hamsah the creator of world, Sathwathan, Dathathreaya, Vedavysa, Vasudeava, Samkharshan, Pradymna, Hayagriva etc are also his partial incarnations for the good of the race. 

 

Partial incarnations (Avatars) Lord Siva:

 

Ekadasa Rudras, Aja, Eka padhan, Ahirbddhanyan, Thwashtav, Rudra, Hara, Sambhu, Thryambak, Thribhuvan, Aparajith, Eesaana etc. 

 

His srishtis (creations) are Veerabhadra (to stop the yaga of Daksha), Khantakarnan (came into being from Lord Siva’s ear), Badrakali (from the 3^rd eye to kill Daarika), Hanuman (with the element of air as devotee of Srirama to help him), Karn (as part of Sun), Vidura (as part of Dharmaraja), Kaikeyi (as part of Saraswathi to send Srirama to forest life for fulfilling his duty of killing Ravana).