Avatar

Avatar (Sanskrit, avatāra) signifies primarily a descent, but is specially applied to the descent of a Hindu deity upon the earth in a manifest shape, either for beneficent or for retributive ends. It is thus almost synonymous in its signification with the Christian term 'incarnation.' The word is sometimes rhetorically employed in English literature as equivalent to manifestation or phase. The ten avatars of Vishnu (q.v.) are the most famous in Hindu mythology.