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 Avatar facts

• The term also generally refers to "alight, to make one's appearance" and sometimes used to refer to any revered guru or human being
• The word avatar does not appear in the Vedic literature, but appears in verb forms in post-Vedic literature, and as a noun particularly in the Puranic literature after the 6th century CE
• The Rigveda describes Indra as endowed with a mysterious power of assuming any form at will
• The Bhagavad Gita expounds the doctrine of Avatara but with terms other than avatar
• Theologically, the term is most often associated with the Hindu god Vishnu, though the idea has been applied to other deities
• Varying lists of avatars of Vishnu appear in Hindu scriptures, including the ten Dashavatara of the Garuda Purana and the twenty-two avatars in the Bhagavata Purana, though the latter adds that the incarnations of Vishnu are innumerable
• The avatars of Vishnu are important in Vaishnavism theology
• In the goddess-based Shaktism tradition of Hinduism, avatars of the Devi in different appearances such as Tripura Sundari, Durga and Kali are commonly found
• While avatars of other deities such as Ganesha and Shiva are also mentioned in medieval Hindu texts, this is minor and occasional
• The incarnation doctrine is one of the important differences between Vaishnavism and Shaivism traditions of Hinduism