Matsya 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.
Varaha is an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, in the form of a boar. Varaha is generally listed as third in the Dashavatara, the ten principal avatars of Vishnu.
Hiranyakashipu, also known as Hiranyakashyap, is an asura king of the daityas in the Puranic scriptures of Hinduism.
Mangala is the personification, as well as the name for the planet Mars, in Hindu literature. Also known as Lohita, he is the celibate deity of anger, aggression, as well as war. According to Vaishnavism, he is the son of Bhumi, the earth goddess, and Vishnu, born when the latter raised her from the depths of the primordial waters in his Varaha avatar.
Sharabha or Sarabha is a part-lion and part-bird beast in Hindu mythology, who is described eight-legged and more powerful than a lion or an elephant, possessing the ability to clear a valley in one jump. In later literature, Sharabha is described as an eight-legged deer.
The Udayagiri Caves are twenty rock-cut caves near Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh primarily denoted to Hindu gods Vishnu and Shiva from the early years of the 5th century CE. They contain some of the oldest surviving Hindu temples and iconography in India. They are the only site that can be verifiably associated with a Gupta period monarch from its inscriptions. One of India's most important archaeological sites, the Udayagiri hills and its caves are protected monuments managed by the Archaeological Survey of India.
Naraka, also known as Narakasura, is an asura king in Hindu mythology. In Assamese tradition, he is regarded as the legendary progenitor of all three dynasties of Pragjyotisha-Kamarupa, and the founding ruler of the legendary Bhauma dynasty of Pragjyotisha. Though the myths about Naraka are first mentioned in the Mahabharata, later texts embellish them. According to later post-Vedic texts such as the Brahma Purana and Vishnu Purana, he was the son of Bhudevi, fathered either by the Varaha incarnation of Vishnu or Hiranyaksha. He is claimed as one who established Pragjyotisha. He was killed by Krishna and Satyabhama. His son Bhagadatta—of Mahabharata fame—succeeded him.
The following list consists of notable concepts that are derived from Hindu culture and associated cultures traditions, which are expressed as words in Sanskrit or other Indic languages and Dravidian languages. The main purpose of this list is to disambiguate multiple spellings, to make note of spellings no longer in use for these concepts, to define the concept in one or two lines, to make it easy for one to find and pin down specific concepts, and to provide a guide to unique concepts of Hinduism all in one place.
In Hinduism, Jaya and Vijaya are the two dvarapalakas (gatekeepers) of the abode of Vishnu, known as Vaikuntha. Due to a curse by the four Kumaras, they were forced to undergo multiple births as mortals who would be subsequently killed by various avatars of Vishnu. They were incarnated as Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha in the Satya Yuga, Ravana and Kumbhakarna in the Treta Yuga, and finally Shishupala and Dantavakra in the Dvapara Yuga.
The Varaha Purana is a Sanskrit text from the Puranas genre of literature in Hinduism. It belongs to the Vaishnavism literature corpus praising Narayana (Vishnu), but includes chapters dedicated to praising and centered on Shiva and Shakti.
Bhumi, also known as Bhudevi and Vasundhara, is a Hindu goddess who is the personification of the earth. She is a consort of the god Vishnu. According to Vaishnava tradition, she is the second aspect of Vishnu's consort, Lakshmi, along with the aspects of Sridevi and Niladevi. According to Hindu mythology, Varaha, the third avatar of Vishnu, saved her from the asura Hiranyaksha and later married her, making her one of his consorts. She is regarded as the mother of Narakasura, Mangala, and Sita.
For one of the major Hindu denominations, the Tirumala Sri Venkateswara Temple at Tirupati in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is the most famous Vaishnavite temple in the world. The presiding deity of Vishnu here is referred to as Venkateswara. There are many legends regarding this temple. Sri Venkatachala Mahatyam is the most accepted legend among these, which provides the history of the temple across the various yugas. This place had also been mentioned in many puranas. It has been said as "Venkatadri samasthanam Brahmande nasti kinchana, Venkatesha samodevo na bhuto na bhavishyati" which literally translates as There is no place in the entire Universe which is equal to Tirumala and there is no other God equal to Venkatesha in the past, present or will be in the future.
The Dashavatara are the ten primary avatars of Vishnu, a principal Hindu god. Vishnu is said to descend in the form of an avatar to restore cosmic order. The word Dashavatara derives from daśa, meaning "ten", and avatāra, roughly equivalent to "incarnation".
Vishnu, also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism.
Besides eight principal queens (Ashtabharya), the Hindu god Krishna, an avatar of the god Vishnu and the king of Dvaraka, wedded a number of captured women, whose number is mentioned as 16,000 or 16,108 in different scriptures.
The Indian boar, also known as the Andamanese pig or Moupin pig, is a subspecies of wild boar native to India, Nepal, Myanmar, western Thailand, and Sri Lanka
Nithyakalayana Perumal temple in Thiruvidandai, a village in Chennai, Chengalpattu district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is dedicated to Varaha, the boar avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. Constructed in the Tamil style of architecture, the temple is glorified in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, the early medieval Tamil canon of the Alvar saints from the 6th–9th centuries CE. It is one of the 108 Divya Desams dedicated to Vishnu, who is worshipped as Nithyakalayana Perumal (Varaha) and his consort Lakshmi as Komalavalli Thayar. The original structure of the temple was built by the Pallavas during the 7th century CE, with later additions from the Cholas during the 11th century.
Kalanemi is an asura in Hindu mythology. He is the son of Virochana, and the grandson of Prahlada. He is slain by Vishnu in the Tarakamaya War, in which he is described to be a commander. In one of his rebirths, in various traditions, he is born as Kansa, the son of Ugrasena, and becomes the king of Mathura. His nephew, Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, slays him for his tyranny. Kalanemi's daughter, Vrinda, becomes Jalandhara's wife.
Sri Varahaswamy Temple, also called Bhu Varahaswamy Temple, is a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Varaha, situated at hill town of Tirumala in Tirupati, located in Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh state, India. The temple is situated on the northern premises of Venkateswara Temple, Tirumala, on north west corner of Swami Pushkarini. This temple is believed to be older than the Venkateswara Shrine.
Narasimha Jayanti is a Hindu festival that is celebrated on the fourteenth day of the Hindu month of Vaisakha. Hindus regard it to be the date the deity Vishnu assumed his Narasimha avatara to vanquish the oppressive asura-king, Hiranyakashipu.
