Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c9.s3.26

c9.s3.26

Each of these Avela, Prabhava and Vaibhava Avatāras has a place of habitation of his own in a particular Loka. Thus the Kūrma lives in a lake in Mahātala, the Matsya in a lake in Rasātala, Nara and Nārāyaṇa in Badarī, the two-legged Varāha in Mahar-loka, the four-legged Varāha in Pātāla, the Hayaśīrṣa in Talātala, Pṛśnigarbha above the Jana-loka of Brahmā, Balarāma in the same place as occupied by Kṛṣṇa (although his partial manifestation or Aṃśa named Saṃkarṣaṇa lives in Pātāla), Vaikuṇṭha in Svarga-loka (but also in Vaikuṇṭha-loka which he himself discovered), Ajita in Dhruva-loka, Trivikrama (who is distinguished from the Vāmana) in Tapoloka and the Vāmana in Bhuvar-loka. But all the Avatāras live in a lower region that Para-vyoman or Mahāvaikuṇṭha, the highest paradise of the supreme beings. This is given in accordance with the *Viṣṇudharmottara*. The school, however, does not seem to possess any definite cosmology of its own, but follows the *Bhāgavata*, *Padma* and other Purāṇas indiscriminately.