Introduction
Vishnu as the Supreme God and venerates His associated Avatars, their consorts, and related saints and teachers. The Vishnu Sahasranama declares Vishnu as Paramatma and Parameshwara supreme God. He is called 'Preserver of the universe'. Vishnu is described as having the divine colour of water filled clouds, four-armed, holding a lotus, mace, shankha and chakra. Vishnu is also described in the Bhagavad Gita as having a Vishvarupa. The Puranabharti also describes each of these Dasavatara of Vishnu. Vishnu is either worshipped directly or in the form of his ten avatara, most famous of whom are Rama and Krishna. Vishnu itself is the second name in the Vishnu Sahasranama, the thousand names of Vishnu. Harihara is the name of a combined deity form of both Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva(Hara).
Avatars
The various avatars categorized in many different ways. Purusavatara is the first avatara; Gunavataras are represented by the Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.
1. Matsya, the fish that kills Hayagriva and saves mankind.
2. Kurma, the turtle that helps the Devas and Asuras churn the ocean for the nectar of immortality.
3. Varaha, the boar that rescues the Earth and kills Hiranyaksha.
4. Narasimha, the one (half-Lion half- human) who defeats the demon Hiranyakashapu
5. Vamana. the dwarf that grows into a giant to save the world from King Bali.
6. Parashurama, A Sage, Rama with the axe, who appeared in the Treta Yuga.
7. Rama, Sri Ramachandra, the prince and king of Ayodhya and killed King Raavana.
8. Krishna king of Dwarka, a central character in the Bhagavata Purana and the Mahabharata
9. Buddha
10. Kalki the end of Kali Yuga, the time period in which we currently exist.
The Vaishnava canon thus claims supremacy of Vishnu even among the Gods by quoting his victories over or killing of those very powerful entities who are themselves devotees of other Gods like the creator Brahma or the destroyer Shiva.
Krishna and Rama are the two mostly widely known and worshiped avatars of Vishnu, with their stories told in the two popular epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Vishnu's avatars appear in different texts, including: the dasavatara from the Garuda Purana,Twenty-two, twenty-three, and sixteen avatars in the Bhagavata Purana, thirty-nine avatars in the Ahirbudhnya saṃhitā, first eight of the dasavatara in Padma Purana.