many texts, as the eighth avatar of Vishnu, but as the source of all ten avatars or “descents,” to each of which one verse of the song is dedicated. Stotras are an essential feature of devotional liturgy, and this particular stotra was to become and remain one popularly sung in the worship of Krishna.

At the end of the last cosmic cycle or kalpa, as Brahma, the Creator, entered the deep sleep that comes between each of the eternally recurrent cycles of existence, he yawned. As he did so, the demon Haya·griva snatched the Veda from his mouth and took it into the depths of the waters that had inundated the universe. Vishnu-Krishna assumed the form of the Fish to slay the demon, retrieve the Veda, and return it to Brahma at the beginning of this cosmic cycle of time.

After Brahma’s awakening, Vishnu-Krishna became the Tortoise to support the earth on his back and raise it out of the deluge. In an elaboration of that myth, alluded to in the next song, the Tortoise’s back was the pivotal base for Mount Mandara when it was used by the gods to churn all that was desirable from the cosmic ocean.

When the demon Hiranyaksha subsequently stole the earth, Vishnu-Krishna became the Boar to hunt down and kill him, and then retrieve the earth once more.

The demon Hiranya·kashipu, Hiranyaksha’s twin brother, had been granted boons that protected him from being slain either during the day or at night, indoors or outdoors, on earth or in the sky, by man or beast. And so Vishnu-Krishna became Naraa·hari, the Lion-Man (neither man nor beast) and, at dusk (neither during the day nor night), as the demon was walking through a door (neither indoors nor outdoors), he lifted him up (so that he was neither on the ground nor in the sky) and disemboweled him with his claws.

When the demon Bali gained control over the universe, Vishnu-Krishna appeared before him as the Dwarf to ask if he could be granted as much land as he could cover in three steps. When Bali agreed, the Dwarf, assuming his cosmic proportions, ________