The Ten Incarnations
 The Story
of
the conquest of Vaishnavism
  over the buddhists &Christians in India

Kurma (TORTOISE) Avatara

The whole nation of Devas were falling apart both physically and mentally. So as usual they approached Brahma for help. (In the older versons of ths Avatar, it was Brahama who took the form of the Tortoise) . Brahma knew he was not strong enough against the mighty Asuras and advised them to seek the help of Vishnu.. When all the efforts to revive them using the Sanjivini medicine failed Vishnu realized that the only way for the Devas to survive was the procurement of Amirtham – the Elixir of Immortality contained in the Milky Way.  All the power of the Devas added to the power of Vishnu were not able to churn the Milky Way long enough to obtain the elixir.  The only people who could do that was the Asuras.  So Vishnu enlisted their help with promises of part of the Elixir while he promised Devas that he will ensure that Asuras did not get any chance of getting the elixir.

 For a churning rod they selected the Mandara Mountain  and used Vasuki the serpent as the rope. Cunningly Vishnu suggested that the Asuras should take up the head of the serpent while the Devas could use the tail part.   During the churning process Vasuki breathed out poisonous vapor which made the Asuras weak.  This made sure that if a war ensued Asuras will not be able to stand.  During the churning the mountain Mandara began to sink in the Ocean.  As a result Vishnu became the Tortoise to hold it up.  That is the first part of the story.  

The churning produced several things.  What first emerged was the eternal poison.  The myth is honest enough to admit that even Vishnu could not deal with this calamity.  If it fell in the cosmos it will destroy it. At this point  Siva graciously gulped it down taking the poison on himself and saving the world. He alone could do that as Mahadeva.  This was followed by  the Poison Halahala,  Varuni (Goddess of Wine and Intoxicants),  the Cow Surabhi, Parijatha (the divine tree),  the Apsaras (the celestial nymphs),  the Moon, the goddess Laxmi (Goddess of fortune – whom Vishnu took as his wife) and Dhanvantari (the God of Medicine).  When the Amrit itself came out at last it came to the Asuras.  As a result Vishnu had to cheat them out of it.  To do this Vishnu appeared in the second form as Mohini the enchantress and offered to serve the Amrit to both the Suras and the Asuras. “She offered to arbitrate, and in the grand tradition of all Tricksters proceeded to rob the trustful demons.”  For this, she ordered the Devas to form one row and the asuras another. Then the maiden Mohini began serving. The gods received their portion first and as soon as  she had served them Mohini disappeared, bowl and all! Mohini had tricked the Asuras!!! The asuras who got nothing for their efforts now realized that they had been tricked and this time by a young, beautiful woman, who was none other than Lord Vishnu in Mohini's disguise!! The demons, deprived of the drink, remained dark and gloomy asuras. Feeling betrayed, they attacked the gods. Vishnu picked up Sharanga, the bow that had emerged from the cosmic sea, and shot deadly missiles at the asuras, helping the devas push them into the deepest recesses of the cosmos, the Patala. As the gods celebrated their victory, Vishnu blew the divine conch Panchajanya and placed the radiant jewel Kaustubha on his crown

Evidently this myth does not portray Vishnu either as the Supreme Person nor even as an honest god.  It is still preserved as a myth for us.  What can it be telling us about what happenned in Indian history?

The story itself tells us a deep truth that the Elixir of Immortality was stolen from the Asuras who were the people who worked most.  What is this Elixir of Immortality?  We know that Vedism as Brahminism was dying out totally.  The weakened Suras were unable to survive with occasional dose of Sanjivani, the only way out was to deceive the Asuras and get the products of their efforts. Syncretization was the only way out.  The Elixirs are nothing but the concepts of Isvara, the Logos (Om) and the incarnation (Avatar) and the related theologies.  We see the results today.  Brahminism took over the symbols and the basic theology of Thomas Christianity which was the faith of the Asuras.  This story tells us in plain words how Vishnu became the god of the Suras.

Sri Kurmanatha temple at Srikakulam, Andhrapradesh, India is the only temple devoted to Lord Vishnu's tortoise incarnation. The present temple is at least 700 years old while the original temple is now claimed as to have been built in 200 AD.

According to the temple legends,  this temple was originally a Saivite temple worshipping Lord siva and was called panchalingaswara.   It was Sri Ramanujam who won the battle against The Saivites and built the second dwaza pillar as the victory pole. Then onwards vaishnavites started the worship of Kurmanatha as the principal deity. (http://srikurmanadhatemple.org/) This might probably give us the clue to the myth.  Were the Saivites the Asuras who helped to get the Amrit and held the head part of the Serpent string to be victims of the poison and were cheated out of the Elixir of Immortality?  Saivism remained within the historical Christianity long after the conflict between Saivism and Vaishnavism.

Mohini appears again in the same seductress role in order to save Siva from the Asura Bhasmasura to whom Siva foolishly gave the power to kill by touching anyone on their forehead.  Mohini was able to make him do it on himself thus saving Siva himself.  Mohini again appeared in much later Kerala history where she gave birth to a child of Siva.  Since Mohini did not have the vagina the child was born through the thighs.  This is the great god Ayyappa of Sabarimala.  Ayyappa’s closest friend was a muslim and so we can date it certainly as later than 600 AD.  Mohini however is nowhere a central deity nor worshipped except in Lord Ranganatha temple in Srirangam, that on Vaikunta Ekadasi day only.

Mohini Siva interaction indicates the synthetic combination of absorption of Saivism by Vaishanvism.  But the total synthezis never took place.  This may be a ridiculing of Saivism by Vaishanavites.  There are many such stories that try to tarnish Saivism as developed by Vaishnavites.  This mixing up is portrayed in the Bana dynasty stories also.

So the basic Palaazhi madanam and the sequence of Mohini deceit is an explanation of how the elixir was cheated out of the Asura’s hand and made use of by the Suras.  How will you explain this in terms of the Vaishanava - Christian historic context?  Christianity in India was destroyed by the infiltration of Gnostic heresy into the church which destroyed the Church.