Portfolios > Dashavatara

Varaha
The Boar

My eyes are like the lotus,
my body is dark like the lotus leaf
and vast as the Nila mountains.

My roar is thunder,
my tusks curl toward the heavens,
my brindled coat throws sparks against the sun.

I plunge my head beneath the ocean,
waking all the fishes and tortoises,
all the water demons.

I hear singing
from deep on the ocean floor.
A woman murmurs as I get near.

I scoop her up in my mighty tusks;
she trembles in fear
as I raise her from the sea.

My huge hooves leave
craters; the ocean
rushes into them and
back to the lower world.

I place Mother Earth on the water’s surface.