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Dasavatharam and Charles Darwin
The world recently observed the bicentennial celebrations of Charles Darwin the man who authored Origin of spicies- the theory of evolution. Darwin was never acknowledged for his path breaking work during his days by the Church which believed that life on earth is creation of the ubiquitious God in their present form. Only late Pope John Paul II was to acknowledge that after all Darwin's theory of evolution could be the right explanation for co existence of many forms of life including that of humans and extinction of certain kind of pri mordial species. The work of Darwin was revolution of sorts at his life time. It is a fitting tribute to remember the father of the theory of evolution . along with Copernicus, Galileo Darwin questioned many beliefs of their time and persecuted for having done so by an orthodox church.
Hindu philosophy has many allegorical stories of life on earth. The Lord of benevolence and guardian of welfare Maha Vishnu is said to have taken many avatars in the world. Lord Krishna says in Bagavad Gita that he takes birth at appropriate times on earth to take on evil and establish Dharma. the serial of the socalled Dasavatharam reads like Darwins' evolution model. Matsya, (Fish) is the first avatar. The earliest life on earth were all living on seas like Amoeba, Algae etc. Koorma is the second avatar( this is amphibian tortoise) Varaha is Pig, Narasimha is the culmination of our early man eating tribals who were part human and part animals.Vaman is akin to early man in the form of Pygmy. Parasuram and Ram are human avatars followed by Lord Krishna. Balram is supposed to another avatar and Kalki whom the world awaits will be coming mounted on a horse back to grant salvation. I am not an authority on hindu scriptures but it marvels me the close resemblance to the theory of evolution as propounded by Darwin in the stories of Hindu mythology.
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