ABSTRACT
So far there has been little to suggest that the avatiira idea has much significance for the composers of the Vi$1Ju. Throughout most of the purii1Ja the accessibility of the Supreme God is expressed either in terms of his manifesting himself directly to his worshippers in his own distinctive form or in his establishing a wide range of forms within the cosmos which reveal his presence to some extent or another. In either case the word rupa is much more frequently used than any part of the verb avaJ tf to denote the forms in which Vi~IfU manifests himself in the cosmos generally, and a7!1sa is the preferred word for his manifestations in the world of human beings. The Vi$1Ju does have a place for the avatiira idea, however, and for God's dramatic intervention in his own world in the form of KJ;~Ifa.
