Avatar (Sanskrit for “descent”) — in Hinduism, a deity’s descent from the spiritual world to the lower spheres of existence. The best-known avatars are ten main avatars of Vishnu: Kurma (the turtle), Varaha (the boar), Narasimha (the half-man/half-lion), Vamana (the dwarf), Parashurama (Rama with the axe), Rama (the prince and king of Ayodhya, the hero of the Ramayana), Krishna (the youthful prince and warrior, the hero of the Mahabharata), Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism), Kalki (the «annihilator of ignorance», that will come to destroy the world and restore dharma).