Varaha is the third avatar of Vishnu in the Dashavatara list, the form in which Vishnu took the body of a boar to rescue the earth goddess Bhudevi from the cosmic ocean. The canonical narrative is in the Bhagavata Purana, Canto 3, Chapter 13, with a longer mace-duel account in Canto 3, Chapter 19. The Vishnu Purana (Book 1, Chapter 4) gives a parallel account. In the story, the asura Hiranyaksha rolls the earth up like a mat and carries her down to the bottom of the cosmic ocean; Vishnu emerges from Brahma’s nostril as a small boar, grows to enormous size, dives into the ocean, slays the asura, and lifts the earth back to her place on his tusks. This article covers the iconography, the Puranic account, the symbolism, and the temples where Varaha is the primary deity.
How Varaha is depicted
Two iconographic types are common. The fully zoomorphic form shows a boar with the earth goddess balanced on its tusks; this is the older form and appears in Gupta-period reliefs such as the famous Udayagiri Cave 5 (early 5th century CE, in present-day Madhya Pradesh) where Varaha rises from the waters carrying Bhudevi. The hybrid form, more common in temple bronzes from the 7th century onward, shows a four-armed anthropomorphic Vishnu with the head of a boar; the standard attributes (shankha, chakra, gada and a lotus or the earth goddess) are distributed across the four hands. The Bhuvaraha temple at Sri Mushnam in Tamil Nadu is one of the principal sites where the hybrid form is the central murti.
The Bhagavata Purana account
The Bhagavata frames the Varaha avatar within a wider narrative about Jaya and Vijaya, the two doorkeepers of Vaikuntha. The four child-sages known as the Kumaras (Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana, Sanatkumara) arrive at Vaikuntha and are barred at the gate by Jaya and Vijaya. The Kumaras curse the two doorkeepers to be born as asuras on earth. In their first asura birth they become Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu, twin sons of the sage Kashyapa and his wife Diti.
Hiranyaksha, the elder twin, grows in power and arrogance. He challenges Varuna, the god of waters, who declines the fight and directs him to Vishnu. While searching for Vishnu, Hiranyaksha encounters the earth herself, rolls her up like a parchment mat, and carries her down to the depths of the cosmic ocean (Rasatala). Brahma, the creator, is unable to continue his work without the earth in place and prays to Vishnu. From Brahma’s right nostril a tiny boar emerges, no larger than a thumb, which then grows in size until it fills the sky.
The combat and the rescue
Varaha dives into the cosmic ocean. Hiranyaksha mocks him as a beast not worth fighting; Varaha replies that the form is deliberate and the contest is real. The mace-duel between Varaha and Hiranyaksha is described in Bhagavata Purana 3.19 as lasting a thousand divine years. Hiranyaksha uses his magical powers to create illusory demon armies; Varaha destroys them with the Sudarshana Chakra. The combat ends with Varaha killing Hiranyaksha with a blow of his foreleg. Varaha then lifts the earth on his tusks and replaces her on the cosmic waters where she belongs, restoring the geography that allows creation to continue.
Why a boar specifically
The boar form is read in three overlapping ways in commentary literature:
- The digging principle: the boar is the animal that roots in mud and pulls things out from below the surface. The form fits the task of lifting the earth from the ocean floor.
- The yajna principle: in older Vedic literature the boar is identified with the sacrificial yajna itself. The Shatapatha Brahmana (Book 14) describes the cosmic yajna in zoomorphic terms with the boar as one of its forms. Varaha as the boar of yajna lifts the earth not by brute force but by the ritual action that orders the cosmos.
- The compression principle: the boar begins as a thumb-sized form and expands without limit. Vaishnava commentators read this as a teaching about the divine compressed into a small ritual icon (the household murti, the temple sanctum) and expanded into the cosmic body when the devotee makes the right offering.
For what it’s worth, the yajna reading is the one that ties Varaha to the older Vedic stratum of Hindu thought. The popular form of the story (Hiranyaksha kidnaps the earth, Varaha rescues her) is theologically simpler but newer; readers who want to understand why this particular animal was chosen by the tradition will find the Shatapatha Brahmana reading more satisfying than the kidnapping narrative alone.
Bhudevi and the earth goddess in the iconography
Bhudevi, the earth goddess, is depicted in Varaha iconography in two distinct ways. In the rescue scene she is a small female figure seated on the boar’s tusk or on his shoulder, looking down or holding her hands in anjali mudra. In the post-rescue scene (less common in temple sculpture) she stands beside Varaha as a consort, similar to the way Lakshmi stands beside Vishnu. The standing form at Sri Mushnam in Tamil Nadu and at the Bhuvaraha shrine at Tirumala (where Varaha is worshipped before the main Venkateswara darshan) follow this consort iconography. Tradition at Tirumala holds that the hill itself belongs to Varaha and that pilgrims must seek Varaha’s permission before approaching the main temple.
Variations across the Puranas
The Varaha account appears in several Puranas with small but consequential variations:
- Bhagavata Purana 3.13 and 3.19: the most cited version. Hiranyaksha is killed by a blow of the foreleg after the thousand-year duel.
- Vishnu Purana 1.4: a shorter account focused on cosmology. Varaha is named as the form Vishnu took to lift the earth at the start of the current Kalpa (called the Varaha Kalpa for this reason).
- Varaha Purana: a Mahapurana named for the avatar. Varaha is the principal speaker and the text frames itself as the teaching he gave to Bhudevi after lifting her.
- Padma Purana, Bhumi Khanda: shorter version with stronger emphasis on the consort relationship between Varaha and Bhudevi.
Major Varaha temples
- Bhuvaraha Swamy Temple, Sri Mushnam, Tamil Nadu: Cuddalore district, dating to at least the 11th century. The principal Varaha temple in Tamil Nadu.
- Sri Varahaswamy Temple, Tirumala: on the Tirumala hill, considered the older shrine on the hill, traditionally visited before the main Venkateswara darshan.
- Udayagiri Caves, Madhya Pradesh: the rock-cut Varaha relief in Cave 5 (early 5th century CE) is the earliest large-scale Varaha sculpture in India.
- Khajuraho Varaha Temple, Madhya Pradesh: a 10th-century Chandela-period temple housing a massive monolithic boar carved from a single sandstone block.
Common questions
Why is the current cosmic age called the Varaha Kalpa?
Hindu cosmology counts time in Kalpas, each Kalpa being a single day in the life of Brahma (approximately 4.32 billion human years by traditional calculation). Each Kalpa is named for a defining event near its beginning. The current Kalpa is called Shveta Varaha Kalpa because it began with Varaha lifting the earth from the cosmic ocean and restoring her to her place. The current age within this Kalpa is the Vaivasvata Manvantara, the seventh of fourteen Manvantaras in this Kalpa.
Is Hiranyaksha the same as Hiranyakashipu?
No. They are twin brothers, both sons of Kashyapa and Diti, and both are the first asura birth of the doorkeepers Jaya and Vijaya after the Kumaras’ curse. Hiranyaksha (the elder) is killed by Varaha. Hiranyakashipu (the younger) is later killed by Narasimha, the fourth avatar, after his son Prahlada becomes a devotee of Vishnu. The two narratives are sequential and the Bhagavata Purana treats them as a paired pair across Cantos 3 and 7.
Why does Varaha need to seek permission at Tirumala?
The reverse, actually. Tradition at Tirumala holds that the hill itself belongs to Varaha (who was settled there first), and that Vishnu in the Venkateswara form took residence on the hill with Varaha’s permission. Pilgrims who follow the older protocol visit the Varahaswamy shrine first and seek Varaha’s leave before the main darshan. This is the traditional reading; the practical sequence varies depending on the queue routes.
One limitation worth noting
The dating of the Varaha narrative and its relationship to the older Vedic boar-of-yajna is contested. The Bhagavata Purana account in its current form is generally placed between the 7th and 10th centuries CE, while the boar references in the Shatapatha Brahmana are much older. Whether the Puranic Varaha is a personification of the older Vedic boar, or a different figure that absorbed the older imagery, is a matter of textual scholarship rather than settled fact.
For deeper textual treatment, see the Wikipedia entry on Varaha for cross-tradition references, and the entry on Hiranyaksha for the asura twin’s narrative arc.
