The Ten Lives of Vishnu Trivia Quiz

Answer: Flood

A Great Flood near the beginning of human history turns up in a variety of religions, from the ancient faith of Sumeria (as told in the epic of Gilgamesh) to modern Judaism and Christianity (as told in the biblical book of Genesis). In the Hindu telling, the catastrophic deluge lasted seven days, and Manu paid special attention to herbs and seeds in stocking his tremendous boat.

Matsya, a fish, may seem an unusual form for a great god to take, but it was effective. Matsya persuaded Manu that he was special by speaking to him, asking him to take care of him; he then persuaded Manu of his divinity by rapidly outgrowing all containers, including the ocean. Only then could Matsya be confident that Manu would heed his warning.

In art, Matsya is often depicted as the head and four-armed torso of a man emerging from the tail of a fish.

Answer: He supported a mountain being used as a churning rod.

The gods had foolishly insulted a powerful sage by treating his gift -- a garland of flowers -- with disrespect. The resulting curse weakened them badly, which was a major problem due to their constant battles with the demon asuras. Vishnu advised the troubled gods to churn the world ocean, which was made of milk, to access the nectar of immortality and regain their strength.

So the gods negotiated a ceasefire with the asuras and began churning. They wrapped a giant snake, Vasuki, around Mount Mandara, and pulled on either end of the snake to manipulate this geological churning rod. When the mountain began to sink in the milk, Kurma appeared to support its weight so that the churning could continue. Eventually the gods received their nectar (and some other gifts besides), and all was well.

Answer: Earth

The Earth, personified in this legend by the goddess Bhudevi, had been stolen away by the demon Hiranyaksha and taken to the deeps of the cosmic ocean. There was no hiding from an avatar of Vishnu, though. The battle between Varaha and Hiranyaksha lasted a thousand years, but at the end the demon lay broken and dead, and Varaha gently used his tusks to lift up the Earth to her proper place. Naturally they fell in love and lived for a time as boar and wife -- what a happy ending.

Answer: Half-man, half-lion

The demon, Hiranyakashipu, achieved near-immortality by performing tremendously pious acts, which entitled him to a boon from the god Brahma. Told that he could not ask for immortality, Hiranyakashipu instead was able to set so many conditions on his death that it seemed impossible they would ever be met. He could be killed by neither man nor beast nor weapon. He could not die inside a dwelling or outside of one, or at night, or in the daytime. But he hadn't counted on his son Prahlada becoming a worshipper of Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu's rage was so violent that Vishnu took form as Narasimha -- neither man nor beast -- to intervene. Hiranyakashipu was slain with Narasimha's claws (not with a weapon) at twilight on the courtyard threshold, neither inside nor outside.

The incorrect answers are all loopholes from other lands. The Norse god Baldur was vulnerable only to mistletoe, and the Greek hero Achilles' sole weakness was his heel. And in Shakespeare's tragic play, Macbeth could not be killed by any man "of woman born" -- and the surgeons didn't count.

Answer: Three strides' worth of land

King Bali, the grandson of the very same Prahlada who had been saved by Narasimha, was a benevolent monarch - but an ambitious one. When Vamana intervened, Bali had already conquered not only the world but also Heaven and the underworld, upsetting the balance. Bali was in the process of solidifying his conquests via a horse sacrifice when Vamana appeared. Bali was famous for granting favors, and Vamana's simple request was irresistible. So you can imagine the king's surprise when the divine avatar suddenly grew to such a stature that his first step covered the whole Earth and underworld, and his second spanned the heavens.

There was nowhere for Vamana to take his third step, so King Bali - recognizing the end of his reign - offered his own head for Vamana to step on. Impressed, the dwarf offered him dominion over the underworld under the honorific Mahabali.

He also granted one more request: that the humbled king be allowed to visit his people once a year to see how they were getting on.

The people of Kerala still celebrate this annual return as the holiday of Onam.

Answer: Human kings

Vishnu took form as Parashurama as kings of the Kshatriya caste were making life tremendously difficult for ordinary people; as one would expect from a god incarnate, Parashurama soon made life tremendously difficult for them. One of his most important tools was an axe that he earned from Shiva after great austerities and prayers. It's a fascinating moment: the two great, active gods of the Hindu pantheon, praying to and assisting each other.

More relatable than, say, a fish or a turtle, and with a more diffuse and complex mission, Parashurama is the locus of a tremendous body of legend and literature. There's too much here to summarize in a single question! I'll just share one fascinating theological twist: according to the two great Hindu epics, Parashurama lived so long that he actually met the next two avatars of Vishnu. How is this possible? A friend of mine explained this mystery with the analogy of a pitcher of water. Even as you pour some water into a glass, there is still water remaining in the pitcher. You can even pour water into several glasses at once, and all the water - in the glasses, in the pitcher, wherever - still shares the same fundamental essence.

Answer: Sita

Just as Rama is the idealized man, Sita is presented as the ideal woman and wife: loyal, devoted, uncomplaining, self-sacrificing. Of course, Sita had some advantages over ordinary women: she was the avatar of Vishnu's own wife, the goddess Lakshmi! The epic Ramayana cannot really be summarized in a single question, but the story is thrilling. Rama's efforts to piece together what had happened to Sita, and where the hundred-headed Ravana had taken her, required the aid not only of his brother Lakshman but also of the monkey king Hanuman. And then they had to figure out how to assault Ravana's island fortress...

Answer: The Bhagavad Gita

Krishna's speech to Arjuna is actually part of TWO great works of literature: the full text of the Bhagavad Gita also appears as several chapters of the Mahbharata. It is set immediately before a battle, Kurukshetra, that will decisively end a terrible struggle between two sets of cousins, the Pandava brothers and the Kaurava brothers. Krishna, a steadfast friend of the five Pandava brothers, thinks it unjust to fight directly, since he is after all a god; instead, he serves Arjuna, the third Pandava brother, as a charioteer. The Bhagavad Gita consists of a conversation between the two, as Arjuna comes to grips with the fact that he will be fighting friends and family. Yet that is a warrior's duty, Krishna explains, in a lengthy lesson that touches on many other aspects of Hindu thought and morality. The work has been a beloved touchstone for Hindus for some two thousand years, and when you read it, it is plain to see why.

There are other stories of Krishna - so many I cannot attempt to summarize them here. His youthful exploits alone could fill a whole series of quizzes!

Answer: Buddhism

Gautama Buddha was an Indian prince, a member of the Kshatriya caste, when he gave up his life of privilege in response to the suffering of the world. His teachings form the core of Buddhism, a religion that rapidly spread through India and Eastern Asia (although it is now less common in India). Many Hindus, seeing the success of Buddhism in preaching detachment and compassion even for animals, immediately associated him with Vishnu. The ninth avatar thus became a Hindu symbol of spiritual universality, connecting the teachings of Buddhism and of Hinduism as different facets of the same underlying truth.

But this identification is controversial. Some Hindus have objected; among other things, the Buddha's renunciation of his worldly life, in favor of becoming a spiritual teacher, is seen by some as a crime against the natural order of things. Meanwhile, some Buddhists have objected on the grounds that this teaching expresses dominance of Hinduism over Buddhism. If you're a Buddhist, you're a Buddhist, they argue - not just a special kind of Hindu.

Some sources list Balarama, a brother of Krishna, as an avatar of Vishnu in place of Gautama Buddha.

Answer: To usher in a new age of righteousness

Hindu cosmology is cyclical. There are four Ages, or Yugas, with morality degenerating between one Yuga and the next. Our current age, Kali Yuga, represents a nadir for humanity, and Kalki - the destroyer of ignorance - will end it. Born to pious parents and trained by Parashurama (the sixth avatar), Kalki "will reestablish righteousness upon earth, and the minds of those who live at the end of the Kali age shall be awakened, and shall be as clear as crystal," as written in the Vishnu Purana. That will be the end of the Kali Yuga, and the beginning of another Satya Yuga and another cosmological cycle.