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  2.2 Svāṃśa. Svāṃśa is the second category into which Rūpa subdivides the encompassing category of tadekātma-rūpa. He defines svāṃśa as “that [form] which is similar [to the vilāsa] but manifests (root vyañj) less śakti.”80 He subsequently provides extended descriptions of five classes of avatāras that are categorized as svāṃśa forms because they are Bhagavān’s “own āṃśas” that are partial manifestations of his vigraha, absolute body: puruṣa-avatāras, guṇa-avatāras, līlā-avatāras, manvantara-avatāras, and yuga-avatāras (see Figure 2). Rūpa defines avatāras as divine forms that “appear (root as + āvir) in an unprecedented way, either directly or through an agent, in order to accomplish some work in the material realm (viśva-kārya).”81 He is also concerned with delineating the particular worlds (lokas or bhuvanas) in which the avatāras take up residence during their sojourns in the material realm of the Brahmā-universes.82 Kṛṣṇadāsa follows Rūpa in delineating five classes of svāṃśa avatāras83 and, like Rūpa, defines an avatāra as a divine form that descends into the material realm in order to fulfill specific functions in creation: “That mūrti which takes shape in the phenomenal world for the purpose of creation, that Īśvara-mūrti is called ‘avatāra.’ All of these dwell in Paravyoma, which is apart from māyā; but having descended into the universe, they have the name avatāra.”84 In the formulations of both Rūpa and Kṛṣṇadāsa we can distinguish between two principal networks of svāṃśa avatāras: (1) the puruṣa-avatāras and guṇa-avatāras, which are ascribed specific cosmogonic roles in promoting the līlā of creation in the sargas and pratisargas, the primary and secondary creations; and (2) the līlā-avatāras, manvantara-avatāras, and yuga-avatāras, which are ascribed specific functions in upholding the līlā of dharma in different cosmic cycles, in particular the kalpas, manvantaras, and yugas, respectively.85 As we shall see, in delineating the cosmogonic functions of the puruṣa-avatāras and guṇa-avatāras, Rūpa and Kṛṣṇadāsa appropriate and reimagine the complex array of creation narratives in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa in the form of a single cosmogonic account. In delineating the dharmic functions of the līlā-avatāras, manvantara-avatāras, and yuga-avatāras, they attempt to generate a coherent system from the various networks of avatāras discussed in different sections of the Bhāgavata by clustering them in separate categories, naming them, and subsuming them in an encompassing taxonomy that seeks to illumine the distinctions and interconnections among the discrete taxa.

  2.2.1 Puruṣa-Avatāra. Within the threefold hierarchy of the Godhead, as discussed earlier, Paramātman, the intermediary aspect of Bhagavān, is represented as the indwelling Self of the macrocosmos who creates, maintains, and destroys the material realm of prakṛti and as the indwelling Self of the microcosmos who is the inner controller of jīvas, embodied beings. In this context Paramātman serves as the source and ground of the three puruṣa-avatāras who are responsible for bringing forth and maintaining the material realm and all jīvas in the sargas, primary creations, and pratisargas, secondary creations. Rūpa identifies the three puruṣa-avatāras more specifically with three manifestations of the Paramātman in the form of Viṣṇu and invokes as a prooftext an unidentified passage from the Sātvata Tantra: “Viṣṇu has three forms (rūpas) that they designate by the name puruṣa: the first is the creator of mahat [the first evolute of prakṛti]; the second abides in the cosmic eggs (aṇḍas); the third resides in all embodied beings (bhūtas).”86 In his discussion of the three puruṣa-avatāras, Rūpa identifies these three forms of Viṣṇu as manifestations of three of the catur-vyūhas, discussed earlier, who reside eternally in Paravyoman—Saṃkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha—and who are classified in Kṛṣṇadāsa’s taxonomy as vaibhava-vilāsas. Rūpa’s discussion of the three puruṣa-avatāras relies primarily on illustrative passages from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and Brahma Saṃhitā. Kṛṣṇadāsa’s expanded exposition recasts the Bhāgavata Purāṇa’s profusion of complex and disparate creation accounts in the form a single cosmogonic narrative in which he associates each of the three puruṣa-avatāras with a key moment in the narrative.87 Kṛṣṇadāsa follows Rūpa in identifying the three puruṣa-avatāras with three forms of Viṣṇu whose names—Kāraṇābdhiśāyin Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyin Viṣṇu, and Kṣīrodakaśāyin Viṣṇu—derive from their distinctive bodily postures as reclining figures who rest (śāyin) on three different oceans (abdhi or udaka) associated with different phases in the cosmogonic process. Moreover, as we shall see, Kṛṣṇadāsa elaborates on the particular functions of the three puruṣa-avatāras as the inner controllers, antar-yāmins, who are associated with different aspects of embodiment: the first puruṣa-avatāra is the Self of the collective totality of the Brahmā-universes who encompasses the innumerable cosmos bodies within his divine body; the second puruṣa-avatāra is the indwelling Self within each separate cosmos body, or Brahmā-universe; and the third puruṣa-avatāra is the indwelling Self within the body of each individual jīva and within the fourteen worlds contained in each cosmos body.88

  2.2.1.1 Kāraṇābdhiśāyin Viṣṇu (Saṃkarṣaṇa). The first puruṣa-avatāra, the ādi-puruṣa, is Mahāviṣṇu, who is represented by Rūpa as a manifestation of Saṃkarṣaṇa and is called Kāraṇābdhiśāyin Viṣṇu because he reclines in the form of Nārāyaṇa on the ocean of causality (kāraṇābdhi or kāraṇārṇava) that separates Paravyoman from the material realm of prakṛti governed by the māyā-śakti.89 According to Kṛṣṇadāsa’s expanded account, Kāraṇābdhiśāyin Viṣṇu, the ādi-puruṣa, provides the impetus for the sarga to begin by activating māyā with his glance and sowing his seed in the form of jīvas in the womb of prakṛti. The equilibrium of the guṇas, the three constituents of prakṛti, is thereby broken, and the sarga begins with the emergence of the twenty-three tattvas, the evolutes of primordial matter, along with their presiding deities (devatās): cosmic intelligence (mahat), ego (ahaṃkāra), mind (manas), five sense capacities (buddhīndriyas), five action capacities (karmendriyas), five subtle elements (tanmātras), and five gross elements (mahā-bhūtas). The tattvas of prakṛti then combine to form innumerable Brahmā-universes (brahmāṇḍas) in the form of cosmic eggs. Kāraṇābdhiśāyin Viṣṇu is celebrated as the inner controller (antar-yāmin) of the entire material realm constituted by prakṛti who encompasses within his body the innumerable Brahmā-eggs. Building on the imagery of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa,90 Kṛṣṇadāsa maintains that each time he exhales, innumerable Brahmā-eggs issue forth from his body (śarīra) through the pores of his skin, and each time he inhales they are withdrawn again into his body.91 Kṛṣṇadāsa emphasizes, moreover, the special function of Mahāviṣṇu, or Kāraṇābdhiśāyin Viṣṇu, as the ādi avatāra of Bhagavān who is the seed of all avatāras (sarva-avatāra-bīja). Although Kṛṣṇa alone is svayaṃ avatārin, the ultimate source of all avatāras, it is Mahāviṣṇu in his threefold manifestation as the three puruṣa-avatāras, according to Kṛṣṇadāsa, who is extolled as the immediate source of the various avatāras. In his manifestation as Kāraṇābdhiśāyin Viṣṇu, the first puruṣa-avatāra, who is an aṃśa of Kṛṣṇa, he is the source of the līlā-avatāras. In his partial manifestation as Garbhodakaśāyin Viṣṇu, the second puruṣa-avatāra, who is an aṃśa of an aṃśa, he is the source of the guṇa-avatāras, and in his partial manifestation as Kṣīrodakaśāyin Viṣṇu, the third puruṣa-avatāra, who is an aṃśa of an aṃśa of an aṃśa, he is the source of the manvantara-avatāras and the yuga-avatāras.92

  2.2.1.2 Garbhodakaśāyin Viṣṇu (Pradyumna). In the next phase of creation Kāraṇābdhiśāyin Viṣṇu, the first puruṣa-avatāra, enters into each of the innumerable cosmic eggs, appearing in each egg in a separate form as the second puruṣa-avatāra. This second puruṣa-avatāra is represented by Rūpa as a manifestation of Pradyumna and as the inner controller (niyāmaka) who resides within each cosmic egg as the Self animating that cosmos body. He is called Garbhodakaśāyin Viṣṇu because he
reclines in the water of the cosmic egg (garbhodaka).93 According to Kṛṣṇadāsa’s expanded formulation, he fills half of each of the Brahmā-eggs with water generated from the perspiration of his own body (aṅga), and he then rests on that water on the bed provided for him by the thousand-headed serpent known as Śeṣa or Ananta. It is this second puruṣa-avatāra who is celebrated in the Vedas as the thousand-headed (sahasra-śīrṣa) puruṣa, for he manifests himself simultaneously in innumerable forms (mūrtis) in the innumerable Brahmā-eggs. Moreover, it is this puruṣa, Garbhodakaśāyin Viṣṇu, who is credited with initiating the pratisarga, secondary creation, by sending forth from his navel a lotus in which are contained the fourteen worlds (bhuvanas) and out of which is born Brahmā the creator. Both Rūpa and Kṛṣṇadāsa emphasize the special function of Garbhodakaśāyin Viṣṇu in bringing forth the celebrated trimūrti of the Purāṇas—Brahmā the creator, Viṣṇu the maintainer, and Śiva the destroyer—who are recast in the Gauḍīya taxonomy as the three guṇa-avatāras and are relegated to a subsidiary position in the hierarchy of Kṛṣṇa’s divine forms.94

  2.2.1.2.1 Guṇa-Avatāra. In the creation narratives of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva are associated, respectively, with the three guṇas of prakṛti: rajas (activity), the principle of creation; sattva (purity), the principle of maintenance; and tamas (inertia), the principle of destruction. Brahmā the creator is represented as emerging from the lotus at the beginning of each new kalpa and serving as the instrumental cause of the pratisarga who fashions the three lower worlds—bhūr-loka (earth), bhuvar-loka (midregions), and svar-loka (heavens)—and various classes of embodied beings from the material of the lotus out of which he himself was born. Viṣṇu is ascribed the role of maintaining the worlds during the course of each kalpa, and Śiva is assigned the role of destroying the worlds in the minor dissolution that occurs at the end of each kalpa. In Rūpa’s and Kṛṣṇadāsa’s reframing, Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva are designated as the three guṇa-avatāras who are the forms (rūpas) that the second puruṣa-avatāra, Garbhodakaśāyin Viṣṇu, assumes (root dhṛ) for the purpose of creation, maintenance, and destruction. Garbhodakaśāyin Viṣṇu assumes the four-headed form of Brahmā, the grandfather of the gods, who is associated with rajas, in order to fashion the worlds; he assumes his own four-armed form as Viṣṇu, who is associated with sattva, in order to maintain the worlds; and he assumes the five-headed form of Śiva, who is associated with tamas, in order to destroy the worlds. Both Rūpa and Kṛṣṇadāsa present a hierarchical assessment of the three guṇa-avatāras in which Brahmā and Śiva are assigned to the lower rungs of the hierarchy because they are tainted through contact with the guṇas, whereas Viṣṇu the maintainer is ascribed the special status of the third puruṣa-avatāra, Kṣīrodakaśāyin Viṣṇu, who as a form of Viṣṇu participates in Kṛṣṇa’s svarūpa and is beyond the guṇas, activating sattva with his gaze alone.95

  2.2.1.3 Kṣīrodakaśāyin Viṣṇu (Aniruddha). Viṣṇu the maintainer is thus ascribed a dual role as a guṇa-avatāra who also serves as the third puruṣa-avatāra. He is represented as a manifestation of Aniruddha and is called Kṣīrodakaśāyin Viṣṇu because he enters into the lotus containing the fourteen worlds and resides there as the inner controller (antar-yāmin) reclining on the ocean of milk (kṣīrodaka). He also enters into the body of each individual jīva and resides there as the inner controller (antar-yāmin) within the heart. Rūpa identifies the third puruṣa-avatāra, Kṣīrodakaśāyin Viṣṇu, with the four-armed puruṣa who is described in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa as the indwelling Self whose abode is the heart: “Some people cognize through meditation the puruṣa residing in the space of the heart (hṛda) within their own body (deha) and measuring one pradeśa, with four arms (catur-bhuja) bearing a lotus, a discus, a conch, and a club, respectively.”96 Rūpa also emphasizes Kṣīrodakaśāyin Viṣṇu’s role as the indwelling Self within the lotus of the fourteen worlds.97 In his expanded formulation, Kṛṣṇadāsa elaborates on Kṣīrodakaśāyin Viṣṇu’s twofold function as the inner controller of all jīvas and of the fourteen worlds. He emphasizes in particular his special role as the maintainer of the cosmic order who descends to the material realm periodically in different cosmic cycles as the manvantara-avatāras and the yuga-avatāras in order to destroy the forces of adharma and reestablish the reign of dharma.98

  2.2.2 Līlā-Avatāra. Rūpa adapts and expands on the account of twenty-two avatāras given in Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1.3.6–28 and provides an extended exposition of twenty-five avatāras that he designates as līlā-avatāras.99 While the puruṣa-avatāras and guṇa-avatāras are associated with the līlā of creation and are ascribed specific cosmogonic functions in the sargas and pratisargas, the līlā- avatāras are associated with the līlā of dharma and are ascribed specific functions in restoring and upholding the cosmic order during each kalpa, day of Brahmā. At the conclusion of his account of the līlā-avatāras, Rūpa asserts that “these twenty-five are called kalpa-avatāras because they generally appear (root bhū + prādur) once in each kalpa.”100 In his discussion of the līlā-avatāras, Rūpa emphasizes the particular type of bodily form—whether divine, semidivine, human, animal, or half-human/half-animal—that Kṛṣṇa assumes each time he descends to the material realm to fulfill a particular function. He also reflects on the distinctive bodily features—age, color, number of arms, mode of dress, and emblems—of each avatāra as well as the specific time period—manvantara, mahā-yuga, and/or yuga—in which each appears during the kalpa. Rūpa’s list of twenty-five līlā-avatāras, like that of the Bhāgavata on which it is based, includes the standard list of ten avatāras—collectively known as daśa-avatāras—that is found in many Purāṇas: (1) Matsya, the horned fish, who rescues Manu and the Vedas from the deluge that occurs between manvantaras; (2) Kūrma, the tortoise, who provides support for Mount Mandara, the mountain that the gods and demons use as a churning stick when churning the ocean of milk to obtain the nectar of immortality (amṛta); (3) Varāha, the boar, whose body is made of the elements of the sacrificial ritual and who lifts up the earth from the depths of the ocean in which it is submerged and slays with his tusks the demon Hiraṇyākṣa; (4) Nṛsiṃha, the ferocious half-man/half-lion, who rends asunder with his claws the body of the demon-king Hiraṇyakaśipu; (5) Vāmana, the brahmin dwarf, who attends a sacrificial ritual sponsored by the demon-king Bali and takes three strides in order to regain the three worlds for the gods’ dominion; (6) Paraśurāma, the golden-hued axe-wielding warrior, who rids the earth twenty-one times of the kṣatriyas who are persecuting brahmins and disrupting the social order; (7) Rāma, the bow-bearing prince with a green complexion like fresh dūrvā grass, who destroys the forces of adharma embodied in the demon-king Rāvaṇa and his demon armies and reestablishes the reign of dharma; (8) Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavān svayam, who unfolds his manifest līlā on earth in his svayaṃ-rūpa as a two-armed cowherd boy with a blue-black complexion; (9) Buddha, the sage with a rose-hued complexion and shaved head, who reestablishes dharma by leading astray the enemies of the gods; and (10) Kalki, the sword-wielding brahmin mounted on a white horse, who appears at the end of Kali Yuga and destroys the forces of darkness that envelop human consciousness and restores the cosmic order by ushering in Satya Yuga. Kṛṣṇadāsa provides an abbreviated account of the līlā-avatāras in which he simply names six of the daśa-avatāras and then asserts that the līlā-avatāras are countless: “The līlā-avatāras of Kṛṣṇa are beyond counting; let me survey the primary ones among them. The Matsya, Kūrma, Raghunātha [Rāma], Nṛsiṃha, Vāmana, Varāha and the rest—the numbers in the writings cannot be counted.”101 Rūpa, in contrast, devotes an entire chapter to a discussion of the bodily features and functions not only of the daśa-avatāras but also of the fifteen other corporeal forms that Kṛṣṇa assumes when he descends to the material realm periodically during the course of each kalpa.102 Following his discussion of the twenty-five l�
�lā-avatāras, Rūpa provides an analytical framework in which he classifies them in a hierarchical taxonomic schema that distinguishes four subsidiary categories, from highest to lowest: parāvastha, vaibhava, prābhava, and āveśa.103