Elements of Hindu Iconography v1.c11.13

v1.c11.13

The Kurmava-tara. We have already seen that this tortoise *avatāra* was assumed by Prajāpati, according to the account given in the earlier writings, for creating offspring. In the later works, as for instance, the *Bhāgavata-purāṇa*, it is stated that Vishnu assumed the form of the tortoise for supporting on its back the mountain employed in the churning of the ocean to obtain the ambrosia for the gods. "In his eleventh incarnation, the Lord, in the form of the tortoise, supported on his back the churning mountain, when the Gods and Asuras churned the ocean" (Bhāg. Pu. 1. 3, 16). The story of the churning of the ocean is well known and needs no description here.