The Preserver, lord of the ten avatars
Vishnu's skin is the deep blue of a rain cloud. His four hands hold the conch Panchajanya, the discus Sudarshana, a mace and a lotus, and on his chest gleams the Kaustubha jewel churned from the ocean of milk. He rides the eagle king Garuda, and between cosmic ages he sleeps on the coils of the thousand-headed serpent Shesha afloat on the milky sea, the lotus from his navel bearing Brahma. His consort is Lakshmi, goddess of fortune.
In the Rigveda Vishnu is a minor figure famed for crossing the universe in three strides; by the age of the epics and Puranas he has become the preserver of the Trimurti. Central to his cult is the doctrine of the avatar: whenever dharma decays he descends to restore it. The standard list of ten runs from the fish, tortoise and boar through the man-lion and dwarf to Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, the Buddha, and Kalki, the rider yet to come. During the churning of the ocean he bore Mount Mandara on his back as the tortoise Kurma and, as the enchantress Mohini, tricked the asuras out of the nectar of immortality.
Vaishnavism is among the largest currents of Hinduism today; the Venkateswara temple at Tirupati draws some of the world's largest pilgrim crowds, and Angkor Wat in Cambodia was first raised as a temple to Vishnu.
