Dashavataras and Evolution

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Some modern interpreters sequence Vishnu's ten main avatars in a definitive order, from simple life-forms to more complexes, and see the Dashavataras as a reflection, or a foreshadowing, of the modern theory of evolution. Such an interpretation was first propounded by Theosophist Helena Blavatsky in her 1877 opus Isis Unveiled, in which she proposed the following ordering of the Dashavataras:

Matsya - Fish, the first class of vertebrates; evolved in water.

Kurma - Amphibious but Reptile (living in both water and land; but not to confuse with the vertebrate class amphibians).

Varaha - Wild land animal.

Narasimha - Beings that are half-animal and half-human (indicative of emergence of human thoughts and intelligence in powerful wild nature) (the missing link between apes and humans.).

Vamana - Short, premature human beings.(Hobbits?)

Parasurama - Early humans living in forests and using weapons. (Dwarfs?)

Rama - Humans living in community, beginning of civil society.

Krishna - Humans practicing animal husbandry, politically advanced societies.

Buddha - Humans finding enlightenment.

Kalki - Advanced humans with great powers of (self)destruction. (This is the future.)

For some believers, who don't consider Buddha as incarnation, they believe Balarama as the alternate incarnation. He is symbolized along with Plow in hand, which in turn depicts moving towards agriculture from forest.

This interpretation was taken up by other Orientalists and by Hindus in India, particularly reformers who sought to harmonize traditional religion with modern science. Keshub Chandra Sen, a prominent figure in the Brahmo Samaj and an early teacher of Swami Vivekananda, was the first Indian Hindu to adopt this reading. In an 1882 lecture he said:

"The Puranas speak of the different manifestations or incarnations of the Deity in different epochs of the world history. Lo! The Hindu Avatar rises from the lowest scale of life through the fish, the tortoise, and the hog up to the perfection of humanity. Indian Avatarism is, indeed, a crude representation of the ascending scale of Divine creation. Such precisely is the modern theory of evolution."