Varaha- The Avatar that Saved Modern Vaishnavism As We Know it

Varaha- The Avatar That Saved Modern Vaishnavism As We Know It

Indeed our religion has changed and developed greatly over the years to accommodate stresses and pressures involved from the contemporary culture of the day. Perhaps this ability to change is what has allowed Hinduism to survive the test of time when all of the religions which existed at its earliest beginnings have long since passed on into myth with the cultures they once serviced. There was at one time a real danger, and indeed the ripples are still being felt in the areas that were affected, of the end of not only Vaishnavism (the worship of Lord Vishnu and his Avatars) but of all Hinduism. This was a time of invasion, destruction and a time when one of the great Avatars of Vishnu once again rose to protect our way of life.

 The year was 1001 A.D. when Mahmud of Ghazni first entered India. In his eyes was the gleam of greed for all the riches held within the temples of western India. Gold and jewels, fine clothes, spices like pepper that were even more costly than precious metals were all given in these great temples. Under the guise of conversion of the heathens he pillages and ransacked the great temples. Destroying the great temple of Somnath in Gujarat and thousands of other pilgrimage sites he carried back the gold and jewels for himself and the broken idols to buried beneath the steps of the Kaaba in Mecca. This was only the first of the conquests into India that would take it’s toll on the religious and scientific cultures of the areas destroyed.

After several hundred years Turks and Afghans entered India to rule. Taking Delhi as their capital they extended campaigns ever further southward. Destroying the great Vishnvanath temple in Banaras and the temple to Sri Rama in Ayodhya that had existed since time immemorial. The Muslim armies finally came within sight of the richest and grandest of the great temples. The southern Dravidians had temples that stood so large they were as fortresses of stone; bound in gate after gate and covered in intricate carvings. The greed of the Sultinate was almost too much when they could almost taste the massive amount of precious things that dripped and gleamed in these places that honor gods they considered blasphemous.

  The famous hill shrine of Tirupati Venkateshwara stood shining atop the Saptagiri like a white pinnacle of Ivory. The only way to reach this temple was to climb the seven peaks of the Saptagiri range using the Alipiri footpath that is even today used by pilgrims. In the climb the armies left a swath of destruction until finally reaching one of the seven great doorways upon which was carved a great boar. Varaha, Vishnu's avatar who saved the earth on his tusk from a demon. Seeing what they considered an unclean beast the armies dared not cross the gateway and fled the temple gates in the process saving the temple and all preserved within.

  This story is common to many of the great temples in the south of India. If you hike to these areas you can see the broken carvings and walls until you reach an image of Varaha after which it seems nothing had ever taken place. No war, no destruction, and no loss of culture or knowledge.

 In modern times you can see a marked difference between the regions affected by these conquests. In areas most heavily affected like the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, etc etc, much of the lost knowledge has yet to be reclaimed. The general state of Hinduism for most locals there has become more of a superstition, even literacy is at an all time low in these places. In places like the south or in Bengal and Maharasthra where these conquests were fought against and pushed away it is easy to see the difference in even today's culture. In literacy, culture, knowledge of “Sanskaar aur Sanskruti” as well as why we actual perform certain acts is common knowledge.

   In writing this I do not mean to place judgment on modern Muslims nor on Hindus living in the states affected by the ancient conquests. I simply enjoyed the tales so commonly told in India and of the boogeyman still feared in much of Gujarat; the dark and frightening pillager that began it all, Mahmud of Ghazni and of that great Avatar that saved us yet again; Varaha, the great boar.