Statue of the boar (fig.) Varaha, the third avatar of Vishnu, as part of the western temple complex in Khajuraho, India. He took this avatar in order to crush Hiranyaksha, an asura or rakshasa, that had abducted the Earth and hidden it on the bottom of the cosmic ocean. According to legend, the battle between the two that followed lasted for a thousand years, and was won by Varaha, who then carried the Earth back from the ocean between his tusks and restored it to its place in the Universe.