Vishnu’s Dashavatar & Charles Darwin – Part 2

Yesterday, we read about the similarities of the first five avatars of dashavatar with Darwin’s theory of evolution. Let us now go through the other five avatars to trace the cultural evolution of mankind.

The sixth avatar of Lord Vishnu was Parashuram, a rugged primitive warrior with a battle axe. This form could be a symbol of the cave-man stage of evolution and his usage of the axe could be seen as man’s evolution from the stone age to the iron age. Man had learnt the art of using tools and weapons and exploit the natural resources available to him.

The next avatar is that of Rama, a king who obeyed all the norms of the society as laid down, even at the cost of his personal discomfort. This form also displays a sense of altruism that was expected from a man amongst men – who was to set the ideals of living and even set an example of exemplary ethical standards. This also shows that society had started forming norms and rules and the life of savagery and might-is-right was over. Kings, government, rules and a distinct class system was beginning to fall in place.

This brings us to the next avatar of Lord Krishna, who was shown as a philosopher who taught the methods to deal with the contradictions of the society. He gave mankind the novel ways of handling ethics and evils both in an objective manner. Showing Lord Krishna’s childhood as a cowherd also depicts the fact that man had learnt the domestication of animals and had learnt to make use of the animal resources available to him and respect the same. Along with Krishna, is his brother Balarama, who is depicted with a plough, which goes on to show that man had also begun to depend on agriculture and had learnt to make use of land and earn from it. This also puts an end to the nomadic life style of the uncivilized man.

During the times of Rama and Krishna, there are a number of concepts introduced to man, which shows that man had begun to even think in a creative manner. The earlier avatars dealt with and depicted the baser instincts of man. But these two avatars had started giving wings to man’s thought process. Thus in Ramayana we find the mention of Pushpak Vimana (a flying machine), crossing of seas by Hanuman, sanjivani-buti (life saving drugs), etc. Similarly, in Mahabharata, which also deals with the life and times of Krishna, we see the evils of the society, games played by the people (chaupar), Sanjay relaying the battle from a distance through divya-drishti (divine-vision), mention and occasional usage of weapons of mass-destruction (brahmastra and divyastra), births which were not normal and which needed external help, all akin to modern methods of aided-reproduction, etc. (Please note that I am not saying that people had the ‘technology’ then; all I am saying is that man had evolved to a stage where he could allow his creative thoughts to think of such aspects of life – which too is a stage in the cultural evolution of mankind).

This brings us the ninth avatar of Lord Vishnu, i.e. Lord Buddha. The story of Buddha symbolizes the emergence of non-violence and human rights as viable doctrines. Till the stage of Rama and Krishna we have seen man thinking of rules and norms of living in a society. We have seen aspects of politics and forms of governing and the life of battles and its repercussions. Buddha gives man a meaning of existence. He gave man the ideals of a class-less society and that all were equal, irrespective of status. Buddha taught man to think beyond material comforts of life. He introduced the concept of Moksha and Nirvana, and made them the ultimate goals of life. We are supposedly still in this stage of evolution and each one of us are seeking our own ways of achieving individual Moksha, though we have not quite found the formula of world-peace!

This completed the entire evolution of man, which started from nothing, to an evolved evolution.

The tenth avatar of Lord Vishnu, i.e. Kalki, is an imaginary incarnation and is still awaited. Kalki depicts a warrior mounted on a flying horse with a sword who is ready to fight any extra terrestrial invader. The symbolism here is not very clear. Different scholars have opined different regarding this avatar, some say that this avatar will bring a complete destruction which will take us back to where we started, whereas some say that this could be the idea of a single leader who will unify the world under a single rule/ruler. (We will have to wait and watch and if something happens during my lifetime, please be ready to find it in this Blog!).

To conclude – it is important to understand that Lord Vishnu’s dashavatar came much before Darwin propounded his theory of evolution. However, this does not undermine Darwin’s efforts in any way, as his theory is more granular and with a lot of scientific evidence that our rational mind has got used to. On behalf of Charles Darwin, I would also like to mention that he had never read the Hindu scriptures and in no way did he use this to formulate his theory of evolution!

Vishnu’s dashavatar has definitely eliminated some stages of evolution, but one can’t overlook the beauty of presenting what today is scientifically an acceptable theory. Moreover, Darwin stopped at the evolution of man, but the dashavatar goes beyond the physical evolution of man, it traces man’s cultural and cerebral evolution too. Needless to say, that the theory has some overlaps, like Parashuram making an appearance during the times of Rama and Krishna, but if you leave such things to the theorists and as aspects of ‘creative indulgence’, then one can’t help but agree that this is definitely one of the best theories of evolution. 

Finally, my favourite statement, (at the cost of repetition) – all that we read in mythology is not without meaning and every aspect has more to it than what meets the eye!

Vishnu’s Dashavatar & Charles Darwin – Part 1

All of us know about Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution – read it in schools. All of us also know about Lord Vishnu’s ten incarnations, better known as dashavatar. How many of us have seen a connection?

Connection between a scientific theory and a mythical narration of god’s incarnation? This is no joke and nor is it a concocted theory meant to superimpose scientific theories on a religious point of view. Nor is this some sort of ‘we-thought-it-first’ kind of pseudo-nationalism leading to a feel-great emotion. This is a natural outcome of what I have always maintained in my blog – every myth has a hidden meaning. There is more to it than what it says and above all, look beyond the story.

The ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu, talk about the forms of Matsya (fish), Kurma (tortoise), Varaha (wild boar), Narasimha (half lion half man), Vamana (dwarf man), Parashuram (angry fighting man with a war axe), Rama (the ideal man/king), Krishna (the philosopher), Buddha (the peace maker) and Kalki (messiah of the future).

If you follow the above forms, you will find a familiar sequence. Yes, it is the chronology of the evolution of mankind.

In the evolution chronology, life evolved in the waters and thus the first form of life is an aquatic animal i.e. the fish (matsya). Lord Vishnu took the form of a huge fish and towed the primordial boat carrying good people and cattle to the new world of the future through the waters of the great deluge.

This was followed by the form which could survive both in land and water, which is depicted through a turtle (kurma), which can survive both in land and water. In the Kurma incarnation Lord Vishnu takes the form of a great tortoise to support churning of the primordial ocean with the mountain, to beget the elixir of immortality. Evolution from Pisces to Amphibians is also what Darwin had proposed. Around the time amphibians evolved, tectonic movements and upheavals of great landmasses were recorded. The churning of the ocean can be seen to symbolise this movement giving rise to new landmasses. At the end of this massive upheaval of earth, mountain ranges such as the Himalayas, Andes, and the Alps were supposed to have come into existence. These mountains later made way for dense forests and rivers which became the source of survival of fast evolving species on earth.

Please note that Darwin’s theory had many intermediate stages of evolution, which is not found in the dashavatar. Instead of the stages of reptiles and birds from amphibians, the dashavatar straightaway evolves to the mammals from the stage of the amphibians giving us the nest avatar of Varaha, the wild boar. In the Varaha avatar Lord Vishnu is seen fighting and eliminating the demon in the oceans, to rescue the abducted land maiden (Bhu-devi) for the benefit of people.

Many scholars have found strange coincidence with the scientific finding that more than about 70 million years ago, the Indian land mass had torn itself from the Antarctic and moved north to join the Eurasian land mass, thus lifting up the Himalayan fold mountains. The tropical forests of the western Himalayan ranges, fed by the great river systems of Indus and Ganges later facilitated the evolution of pre-human species. They further surmise that the conquest of the demon by a wild boar could symbolically signify the end of dominance of giant reptiles (dinosaurs?) and the emergence of mammals as the leaders of life forms.

Once the mammal had evolved, the next stage of evolution was a form of human beings who resembled animals both in looks and in behaviour. This takes us the next avatar of Narasimha, where Lord Vishnu is described as a form of half lion and half man. In short, the theme is that of transition. The human evolution did have a transitional form in this period, which is aptly named by Indian anthropologists as "Rama Pithacus" and "Sugriva Pithacus". This species is supposed to have been found in the Himalayan region and they were said to have had long manes on their head and were bipeds, the first step of human form that stood on two legs, but was still animal like, and in this case the animal resembles a lion. Narasimha is supposed to have killed a demon Hiranyakashyap, father of Prahalad, who was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. The manner in which the demon was killed was typical to animalistic-man who was still in his savage stage.

From this stage was evolved a slightly smarter and intelligent species of mammals, i.e. the monkey clan who were short but intelligent. This brings us to the next avatar, of the Vamana avatar (the dwarf man). The way Vamana uses his cunning sense to eliminate Mahabali to gain power of earth is a case in point. Symbolically speaking, the three steps of Vamana could well symbolize the mastering of the three key aspects of the human beings at the said stage of evolution - homo-erectus (upright walking), homo-habilis (use of tools) and homo-sapiens (discriminative thinking), which distinguished humans from non-humans

The first five avatars are the symbols of Darwin’s biological evolution theory. The sequence may well represent the forms of fishes, amphibians (reptiles), mammals, advanced primates (hominids) and finally the thinking man respectively. If we look deep and go through the stories in details, they all give hints of the physical evolution of man. However, the next five avatars show the cultural evolution of man.

We will take this aspect of evolution tomorrow…..keep reading!