The Vaman avataar is the fifth dashaavataar of Lord Vishnu. Vaman is the young Hindu Brahmin avataar and dwarf incarnation of Lord Vishnu to defeat the Asura (demon) King Mahabali who was the grandson of Lord Vishnu’s great devotee Prahlad. This avataar was assumed to crush Mahabali’s arrogance and tyranny and build a balance of justice and righteousness on earth.

It is believed that when Mahabali sought advice from the Asura Guru Rishi Shukrcharya on how he could build his powers, he was advised to perform a yagna. Once the yagna was completed,  King Mahabali was gifted with a golden chariot where the horses ran like the wind. He was also gifted with a divine armour, divine arrows, a divine conch and a divine garland. With these new gifts, Mahabali felt very powerful and fought with Lord Indra and emerged victorious.

With this victory, Mahabali now wanted to gather more wealth and hence performed another yagna. During this time, Lord Indra reached out to Lord Vishnu for help to kill Mahabali and give him back the heavens.

Lord Vishnu took birth as Mata Aditi’s son. Mata Aditi is known as Lord Indra’s mother too. Mata Aditi named this son, Vaman who then disguised himself as a Brahmin and went to meet Mahabali during his yagna. At the yagna, Mahabali asked all Brahmins what they wished for. That is when the witty Vaman asked to own the land space covered by his three steps. The request seemed ridiculous to the Asuras as well as to the demon king who did not know the reality and agreed to the wish. That is when Vaman started growing in size to such an extent that in his first step, he covered the entire earth. In his second step, he covered the entire sky. Now there was nothing left to be covered in the third step. Though King Mahabali was a demon, he was true to his word and he requested Vaman that he can put the third step on his head. This devotion and truthful behaviour pleased Lord Vishnu, who appeared in his true avataar and blessed Mahabali and granted him the permission to rule Pataal Lok.

Once Mahabali went to Pataal Lok, Lord Indra and the other Gods returned to their heavens.