Deification is common in India.[355] It exists to the present day and even defunct Europeans do not escape its operation.  In modern times, when the idea of reincarnation had become familiar, eminent men like Caitanya or Vallabhacarya were declared after their death to be embodiments of Krishna without more ado, but in earlier ages the process was probably double.  First of all the departed hero became a powerful ghost or deity in his own right, and then this deity was identified with a Brahmanic god.  Many examples prove that a remarkable man receives worship after death quite apart from any idea of incarnation.

The incarnations of Vishnu are most commonly given as ten[356] but are not all of the same character.  The first five, namely, the Fish, Tortoise, Boar, Man-Lion and Dwarf, are mythical, and due to his identification with supernatural creatures playing a benevolent role in legends with which he had originally no connection.  The sixth, however, Parasu-rama or Rama with the axe, may contain historical elements.  He is represented as a militant Brahman who in the second age of the world exterminated the Kshatriyas, and after reclaiming Malabar from the sea, settled it with Brahmans.  This legend clearly refers to a struggle for supremacy between the two upper castes, though we may doubt if the triumphs attributed to the priestly champion have any foundation in fact.  The Ramayana[357] contains a singular account of a contest between this Rama and the greater hero of the same name in which Parasu-rama admits the other’s superiority.  That is to say an epic edited under priestly supervision relates how the hero-god of the warriors vanquishes the hero-god of the priests, and this hero-god of the warriors is then worshipped by common consent as the greater divinity, but under priestly patronage.  The tenacity and vitality of the Brahmans enabled them ultimately to lead the conqueror captive, and Ramacandra became a champion of Brahmanism as much as Parasu-rama.

Very interesting too is the ninth avatara (to leave for a moment the strict numerical order) or Buddha.[358] The reason assigned in Brahmanic literature for Vishnu’s appearance in this character is that he wished to mislead the enemies of the gods by false teaching, or that out of compassion for animals he preached the abolition of Vedic sacrifices.  Neither explanation is very plausible and it is pretty clear that in the period when degenerate Buddhism offered no objection to deification and mythology, the Brahmans sanctioned the worship of the Buddha under their auspices.  But they did so only in a half-hearted way.  The Buddha was so important a personage that he had to be explained by the intervention, kindly or hostile, of a deity.[359]

In his tenth incarnation or Kalki,[360] which has yet to take place, Vishnu will appear as a Messiah, a conception possibly influenced by Persian ideas.  Here, where we are in the realm of pure imagination, we see clearly what the signs of his avataras are supposed to be.  His mission is to sweep away the wicked and to ensure the triumph of the pious, but he comes as a warrior and a horseman, not as a teacher, and if he protects the good he does so by destroying evil.  He has thus all the attributes of a Kshatriya hero, and that is as a matter of fact the real character of the two most important avataras to which we now turn, Rama and Krishna.