Pancaratra and Angkor Wat Temple

This list has been reproduced almost exactly from the ninth paricched of Saattvata Samhita (ed. pp. 79-80), a work that is referred to by Ahirbudhnya Samhita.

Numbers 9 ( = hamsa), 15 (= Kurma), 28 (= Matsya), 16, 17, 29, 35, 36, 37, and 38 are the ten Avataaras. (The ten Avatars enumerated in Narayaniya section of S'anti Parvan of Mahabharata).

"Four of the others show Visnu under different aspects at the beginning of creation and after Pralaya respectively, namely: (14) as sleeping, with Lakshmi, on the primeval waters; (1) as growing from His navel the lotus from which Brahman is to spring; (27) as the boy floating on the Nyagrodha branch, in whose mouth Markandeya discovered the dissolved universe; and (39) as the 'Lord of the cataclysmic fire', clas in a flaming robe, waited upon by Lakshmi, Cintaa, Nidraa and Pushti. Again, there are four other Avataras, nos. 31 to 34 (including one already mentioned)who are Visnu appearing as the four sons of Dharma and Ahimsa. They are described, in Sattvata Samhita as four ascetics clad in deer skin, etc. the one reciting Mantras, the second absorbed in meditation, the third teaching meritorious works, and the fourth performing austerities. Then there are four (including two already mentioned), to wit nos. 1,5,29, and 30, who are identical in name, and piossibly in some other respect, with four of the twelve Sub-Vyuhas. Two of these, namely Vamana and Trivikrama, are...merely the two opposite aspects of the well-known Vamana Avatara, that is Visnu as the very small one (hrt-stha) and the all-pervading one (sarva-vyaapin, trailokya-pooraka); while no. 5 refers, of course, to Visnu's victory over the demon Madhu... No. 3, Ananta, is not the serpent S'esa but Balarama, the brother of Krsna. In Padma Tantra, he is inserted after Paras'urama as the eighth of the ten Avataras, instead of the first (Hamsa) who is omitted. No. 7, is, according to our Samhita, the Samkhya philosopher, and he is evidently the same as Kapila, the teacher of Naga kings...No. 10, Krodaatman, can be none else, to judge from Sattvata, than Visnu as the Yajna-varaaha or Yajna-sookara -- a particular aspect of the Boar incarnation.The description...of no. 24, Lokanatha, points to Manu Vaivasvata who was saved from the deluge by Brahman as a fish and made the (secondary) creator of all living beings. No. 20, Kaantaatman, is described in Sattvata Samhita as a beautiful youth with 'eyes unsteady by love', etc. that is to say as Pradyumna, or Kaama reborn (after his destruction by S'iva) as the son of Krsna. But in Ahirbudhnya Samhita, he has the epithet amrta-dhaaraka 'carrying nectar' which seems rather to point to Dhanvantari, the physicial of the gods, or to Dadhibhakt. No. 26, Dattatreya, is the well-known sage, son of Atri and Anasuya. No. 37, Vedavid, is, according to Sattvata Samhita, the famous Veda-Vyaasa. All of these are among the twenty-two Avataras enumerated in the Bhagavata Purana (I,3), supposing that Krodaatman may be identified with Yajna, Kaantaatman with Dhanvantari, and Lokanatha with Purusa (the Male Progenitor). The following are also Puranic: Dhruva (No. 2), the Rsi and polar star, celebrated in Sattvata Samhita, as the bearer of the Aadhaara S'akti; Vaagisvara (no. 13), who is Hayaseersha or Hayagriva; and S'aantaatman (no. 25), if he is, as may be supposed, either Sanatkumaara (Sanaka) or Naarada, as the expounder of the Saatvata system. S'aktyaatman (no. 4) is Visnu as icchaa-roopa-dhara (Saattvat Samhita), that is, assuming the particular form required for pleasing some devotee. Vidyaadhideva, 'the Lord of Viraj', is the four-faced Brahman. No. 8 is Visnu in the form in which He appears to Arjuna in the famous Visvaroopa Adhyaya (11) of Bhagavad-Gita. No. 11 is Aurva. No. 12 is Visnu as dharma personified. No. 18, also called Amraaharana, is Visnu as the restorer of immortality to the gods. No. 19 is Visnu as the husband of Lakshmi (who threw himself into His arms when she emerged from the ocen). Nos. 21 and 22 are Visnu conquering respectively Rahu and Kalanemi. No. 23, finally, is Krsna wrestling from Indra the celestial tree.

"The enumeration of exactly thirty-nine Avataras and the insistence upon this number also in the mantroddhaara in both the Samhitas concerned, seems to prove that the number is meant to be exhaustive...The second point to be emphasized in connection with this list is that it occurs in one of the very oldest Samhitas (Sattvata) and therefore may be older than the smaller lists found in later Samhitas and older even than the Mahabharata list mentioned above...Avataras is explained at length in Vishvaksena Samhita. There the primary Avataras only are declared to be like a flame springing from a flame, that is to say Visnu Himself with a transcendent (apraakrta) body, while a secondary Avatara is an aatman in bondage with a natural body which, however, is possessed (aavishta) or pervaded, for some particular mission or function, by the power (s'akti) of Visnu...The said Samhita enumerates as instances of secondary Avataras: Brahma, S'iva, Buddha, Vyaasa, Arjuna, Paras'urama, the Vasu called Paavaka, and Kubera, the god of riches. As for the origin of the Avataras, Vishvaksena Samhita declares that all of them spring from Aniruddha, either directly or indirectly, examples of the latter class being Mahes'vara (S'iva) who descends from Aniruddha through Brahman, and Hayas'iras who comes from the Fish, who himself springs from the direct Avatara Krsna. According to Lakshmi Tantra also all the Vibhavas descend from Aniruddha...The Avatars are not confined to human and animal forms: the vegetable kingdom is sometimes chosen, as in the case of the crooked mango-tree in the Dandaka Forest mentioned by Vishvaksena Samhita as an instance of this class of incarnations. Even among the inanimate objects an image of Krsna, the Man-lion, Garuda, etc. becomes an Avatara of Visnu (endowed with a certain miraculous power felt by the worshipper) as soon as it is duly consecrated according to the Pancaratra rites, it being supposed that Visnu, owing to His omnipotence, is capable of 'descending' into such images with a portion of His s'akti, that is, with a subtle ('divine', 'non-naural') body. This is the Arcaa Avataara or incarnation for the purposes of ordinary worship. It is exhaustively treated in Vishvaksena Samhita. There is, finally, the Antaryami Avataara, which is Aniruddha as the 'Inner Ruler' of all aatman (niyanta sarva-dehinaam) -- a very old conception based on a famous Upanishadic passage. The Antaryaamin is the mysterious power which appears as instinct and th elike, and which as the 'smokeless flame' seated in the 'lotus of the heart' plays an important part in Yoga practice...It is, indeed,for meditation than for anything else that Visnu is believed to have manifested Himself under different forms. To Pure Creation, thirdly, belongs the paramavyoman, 'Highest Heaven' or Vaikuntha, with all the beings and objects contained in it. This Highest Heaven has nothing to do with any of the temporal heavens forming the upper spheres of the Cosmic Egg. This is indicated by its being called Tripaad-vibhuti, 'manifestation of the three-fourths (of Paramaatman)', in contra-distinction to the one-fourth with which Aniruddha creates the Cosmic Egg. The Highest Heaven, in that it is not reached, at Liberation, until after the 'shell' or 'wall' of the Cosmic Egg has been 'pierced', is defined as 'infinite above, limited below.'" (pp.43-50)

"The Divine Figure is adorned with nine chief ornaments and weapons, which symbolically represent the principles of the universe, namely, the Kaustubha (a jewel worn on the breast) = the aatman, the S'rivatsa (a curl of hair on the breast) = Prakrti, a club = Mahat, a conch = the Sattvic Ahamkara, a bow = the Tamasic Ahamkara, a sword = knowledge, its sheath = ignorance, the discus = the mind, the arrows = the senses, a garland = the elements. These weapons and ornaments are not merely regarded as symbols but also as actually connected (as presiding deities of the like) with the Tattvas they represent. In this sense we read, for instance, in Visnutilaka, that during the universal night the soul 'in the form of Kaustubha' rests in the splendour of Brahman form which it is again sent out into the world (prapancita) at the beginning of the new cosmis day in order to return once more and for ever when it is liberated...Padma Tantra describes the Para Vasudeva as dividing himself 'for some reason' and becoming with one half the Vyuha Vasudeva 'crystal-like' and with the other Narayana, 'black as a cloud', the creator of the primeval waters ( = Maayaa)." (pp. 52-53)

"Of the two classes of Jivas or individual aatman existing in the Highest Heaven, the more exalted ones are the so-called Nityas (eternal ones) or Sooris (sages, masters), which two words can be fairly accurately rendered by 'angels'...The duties they have to discharge are, however, so mysterious that hardly any attempt has been made at defining the same. These angels are, besides the 'door-keepers' and 'town-watchmen' of the 'Holy City of Vaikuntha', called respectively Canda, Pracanda, Bhadra, Subhadra, etc. and Kumuda, Kumudaaksha, Pundarika, Vamana, etc., the so-called Parshadas or Paarishadas, that is 'companions' (retinue) of God, and in addition to (or among)the latter the three move prominent beings called Ananta, Garuda and Vishvaksena. Of these, Ananta or S'esha, the serpent, is the couch of Visnu, and Garuda, the 'king of birds', his so-called vehicle (vaahana), while Vishvaksena, the 'lord of the hosts', is described as a sort of chief minister to Paramaatman in all affairs heavenly and mundane...The lower class of inhabitants of the Highest Heaven are the Muktas or Liberated. They are described as intensely radiating spiritual atoms of the size of trasarenu (mote in a sunbeam). This description is evidently connected with Mahabharata XII, 346 where it is said that the liberated become atomic after having been burned up by the Sun; and in so far as this undoubtedly means that the liberated by passing through the Sun get rid of their subtle body, Tattvatraya (ed. p. 12) is right in teaching the 'atomicity' of any, even the bound, aatman, if described in itself. The liberated, then, are bodiless. But this only means that they have no 'karma-made' body; they can assume, whenever they like, a 'non-natural' body, or even simultaneously several such bodies, and freely roam about in the whole world. They are, however, excluded from actual interference in worldy affairs, differing in this respect from the angels, as already noticed. Among the Muktas there exists no gradation or social difference of any kind -- they being as equal, essentially, as for instance grains of rice -- still their mode of life differs by the difference of devotional inclinations preserved from their last earthly existence. 'Whatever form (of Paramaatman) the devotee has been attached to in his mundane existence, that kind does he behold as an inhabitant of the Highest Heaven.'" (pp.56-58)