The Varaha avataar is the third of the ten dashaavataars of Lord Vishnu. In this avataar, Lord Vishnu takes the shape of a big boar to kill the demon Hiranyakashipu and thus save Mother Earth. The avataar is unique as Lord Vishnu assumes a half-animal, half-man form where the head is of a boar and the body is of a human.

The legend around the Varaha avataar talks about how the arrogant demon king Hiranyakashipu submerged Mother Earth into the ocean and caused havoc in the Universe. Hiranyakashipu had received a powerful boon from Lord Brahma that no being, divine or mortal would be able to kill him. This feeling of immortality and invincibility, made Hiranyakashipu more evil and he started troubling the Gods and even attacked the Dev-Lok. The Gods had to flee from their abodes and run away from Hiranyakashipu’s tortures.

After attacking the Gods, the demon’s arrogance increased further. He now turned his attention to Mother Earth or Bhoomi Devi and kidnapped her. This caused total chaos in the universe. To ensure that no one is able to find her, he submerged Mother Earth into the depths of the ocean of the Patal Lok (land of the Asuras).

Having left with no option, the Gods pleaded to Lord Vishnu to save the Earth. There is another legend with says Lord Brahma requested Lord Vishnu to kill the demon Hiranyakashipu and started meditating. Slowly a tiny piglet emerged from his nostril which was Lord Vishnu himself. This tiny piglet started growing in size until it reached the size as large as a mountain. This was Lord Vishnu’s  Varaha avataar which rescued Mother Earth using his celestial tusks. It is said that in his Varaha avataar, Lord Vishnu plunged into the deep depths of the oceans to search for another Earth. He thrust his mighty tusks into the ocean waters, and lifted Mother Earth with his own tusks and swam to the shore and rescued her.

On his way up, he also fought with the demon Hiranyakashipu and slayed him with his tusks. The fight was fierce and it is said that this fight went on for thousand years before the demon was killed. After Hiranyakashipu’s death, the chaos that was caused came to an end and normal balance was restored.