Darwin And Dashavatar

This mail is in response to Shri Thyagarajan's

message in the column 'Interesting Shares on 5th Sep 2022,
This particular mail about the conversation between a scientist Ganesg and his south Indian mother Parvathi is quite interesting and has been a subject of discussion many others.Yet the mail sustains its taste and flavour.
I would like to resend reply written a few years back with reference to the subject.

The comparison, though interesting at the outset seems to have certain clear discrepancies.
Religion, Avatars etc depend essentially on 'Faith' and Darwins Theory of Evolution is based on his actual observations. ( pratyaksham)though scientific theories also first originate from hypotheses,(Anumaanam) later on get so many transformations based on future scientists..
In Shrimat Bhagavatham a reference is made to 24 Avatars, of which sage Narada, Vyasa are also included.
However taking the ten main Avatars, it is argued that the avataras typically represent the ascent from acquatic creatures to amphibions to mammals leading to semi animal-man ( Narasimha ) Avatar, then to a dwarf human avatar ( Vaman), a jungle dweller, terrific uncontrollable Parasurama to the more civilized Shri Rama and Krishna,Rama being perfect, Krishna being more wise, clever with an aim to win.
Somehow the cycle has to end,that is with Kalki Avatar.
True, there are are subtle similarities to suggest Theory of Evolution.But there is a lot of difference between Darwin's Scientific Theory of Evolution and traditional thoughts on Dashavataram.

As per theory of Evolution, there have been only fish, all acquatic creatures and nothing else. In the second stage of evolution there were another set of creatures with some advanced features to prove evolutionary process. We have never come across a human being living at the time with dianossures.
In Matsyavatar we have read that a human king named Satyavrata gave a place to the fish in his palace.That fish grew bigger and bigger to the size of the ocean.

In kurmavatar also we see lot of Devas and asuras while the milk ocean was churned.
Matsya Avatar is reported to have occurred in some part of India, and amrita kalasam came from some non human realm,that is milky ocean.
Coming to Varaha Avatar ,it is very strange.That could not have happened in this earth, since Varaha avatar itself was intended to lift the earth which was submerged into ocean.
Even as per Bagavatha Puranam, Matsya does not seem to be the first Avatar. Other species had been there and just to save the seeds of all those species, Vishnu took the form of fish.
As per theory of Evolution, the previous species lacked certain features and the later species have developed over them, more refined. But all of Vishnu Avatars are great in their own way. In no way matsya Avatar is less significant or inferior to Kurma, and Narasimha is better evolved than varaha.
Ramaavatar cannot be isolated without monkeys and Rakshasas.
Krishna Avatar cannot be considered superior to Rama Avatar.The choice of which Avaatr to take, rests with Almighty who is Omni potent, omnopresent and omniscient.
These 10 Avatars alone have formed a set so that even the less elite could understand and appreciate the Avatara mahimas and not with a view to support the theory of Avatar-Evolution phenomenon, which is of very recent origin.
By going through all the stories connected with all the Avatars we can certainly say that it is not animal exclusive slowly evolved into human order. We find elite sages, rishis, devas, asuras in almost all the avatars making their simultaneous presence.
The age of the Universe as supported by science seems to be different from what is stated in scriptures.
So we cannot set aside the theories of the great scientist Darwin based on so much of environmental studies and can't come to a conclusion that whatever Darwin has stated has already found a place in our scriptures.
The simple fish-tortoise-varaha-narasimha leading to Krishna alone does not seem to support the view.
There is absolutely no possibility that Darwin, the scientist had studied Shrimat Bhagavatham to formulate his theory of Evolution.
I think we can analyse Darwin's Theory of Evolution separately and appreciate the scientific facts which are very much interesting.We can admire Dasavatars separately as part of our scriptures which form the basis of our Hindu culture and traditional values.,in stead of arguing that the Theory of Evolution itself had a base in our epics.
This discussion was part of our debates while studying about Darwin in Biology class,.It was so popular among Sanskrit students .In fact I had participated in such debates and discussions during degree class (1958-1961) as I was a student of Biology and Sanskrit.,when we were taught both about Darwin's Theory of Evolution and History of our ancient scriptures.
This mail is without any prejudice to the valuable views of Madras Mami and her brilliant son, a genetic scientist.I am really surprised how he totally agrees with her Amma.Is it just to satisfy her emotionally?
jayasala42