Varaha is the boar, the third of the ten principal avatars of Vishnu, and his single great act is the rescue of the earth. In the myth, the demon Hiranyaksha has seized the earth-goddess Bhudevi and dragged her down to the bottom of the cosmic ocean, so that the world is lost beneath the waters. Vishnu takes the form of a colossal boar, dives into the depths, finds the earth, and raises her up on his tusks, restoring her to her place on the surface; along the way he does battle with Hiranyaksha and destroys him. The image of the mighty boar rising from the water with the earth balanced on a tusk, often shown as a small female figure, Bhudevi, seated on or clinging to the tusk, is one of the most frequently carved scenes in Indian sculpture, from monumental temple reliefs onward. The story carries a clear meaning: when the ordered world is overwhelmed and dragged into chaos, the preserving god takes on even the form of a beast to lift it back into the light.
Varaha embodies the sheer power and determination of Vishnu's protective role, the deity who will plunge to the very bottom of the deep to recover the world when it is lost. He was an important deity in his own right in earlier periods, worshipped at temples across India, and the cosmic boar remains one of the most vivid figures in the avatar tradition.