Varāha

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Varāha (Skt., ‘boar’). In Hindu mythology, the form which Viṣṇu assumed in order to raise the earth from the cosmic ocean. In its earliest forms this story is a creation myth, and the boar is identified with the creator god Prajāpati. Later it is identified with Brahmā and then with Viṣṇu, eventually being regarded as the third avatāra of the standard list.