Editing Hiranyaksha (section)

==Origins and significance==
[[File: Varaha Avatar of Vishnu kills Hiranyakshan and the Devas shower flowers from the heaven.jpg|thumb|Varaha slays Hiranyaksha, and the devas shower flowers from heaven]]
This Hindu legend has roots in the [[Vedas|Vedic literature]] such as [[Taittiriya Shakha|Taittariya Samhita]] and [[Shatapatha Brahmana]], and is found in many post-Vedic texts.<ref name="Stietencron22">{{cite book|author=H. von Stietencron|editor=Th. P. van Baaren |editor2=A Schimmel|display-editors=etal|title=Approaches to Iconology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UesUAAAAIAAJ |year=1986|publisher=Brill Academic |isbn=90-04-07772-3|pages=16–22 with footnotes}}</ref><ref name=mitra1963>[[Debala Mitra]], ’Varāha Cave at Udayagiri – An Iconographic Study’, ''Journal of the Asiatic Society'' 5 (1963): 99-103; J. C. Harle, ''Gupta Sculpture'' (Oxford, 1974): figures 8-17.</ref> These legends depict the earth goddess (Bhumi or [[Prithvi]]) in an existential crisis, where neither she nor the life she supports can survive. She is drowning and overwhelmed in the cosmic ocean. Vishnu emerges in the form of a man-boar avatar. He, as the protagonist of the legend, descends into the ocean and finds her. She hangs onto his tusk, and he lifts her out to safety. Good wins, the crisis ends, and Vishnu once again fulfills his cosmic duty. The Varaha legend has been one of many archetypal legends in the Hindu text embedded with the theme of right versus wrong, good versus evil symbolism, and of someone willing to go to the depths and do what is necessary to rescue the righteous and uphold [[dharma]].<ref name="Stietencron22"/><ref name=mitra1963/><ref name=williams42>{{cite book|author=Joanna Gottfried Williams|title=The Art of Gupta India: Empire and Province|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WQl_QgAACAAJ |year=1982|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-10126-2|pages=42–46}}</ref>