An Avatar is defined as the incarnation (bodily manifestation) of an Immortal Being, or of the Ultimate Being. It derives from the Sanskrit word "Avatara" which means "descent" and usually implies a deliberate descent into mortal realms for special purposes.
The term is used primarily in Hinduism, for incarnations of the god Vishnu the preserver. To this day Hindus believe in the divine Avatars Krishna and Rama.
The word has also been used by extension by non-Hindus to refer to the incarnations of the gods in other religions and mythologies, for example Jesus Christ.
This doctrine has had a great impact on Hindu religious life, for to many it means that God has manifested Himself in a form that could be appreciated even by the least sophisticated. Rama and Krishna have remained prominent as beloved and adored manifestations of the Divine for thousands of years among Hindus. The Upanishadic concept of the underlying unity Brahman is revered by many to be the pinnacle of Hindu thought, and the concept of the avatars has purveyed this concept to the average Hindu as an expression of the manifestation of the Hindu's highest single divinity as an aid to humanity in dark times. The Hindu cycle of creation and destruction contains the essence of the idea of 'avatars' and indeed relies on a final avatar of Vishnu, that of Kalki, as the final destructive force at the end of the world.
Rama and Krishna are by no means the only divine avatars in Hindu traditions. Hinduism includes the belief that the divine has taken human (and prior to the emergence of humankind, animal) forms here on earth many times. Little is known of any appearance as an avatar by Brahma or Shiva, but emanations of Vishnu, appeared a number of times. Some Hindus, based on the Ramayana, aver that Shiva incarnated once as the monkey-god Hanuman, who was a devotee of Vishnu.
Kalki ("Eternity", or "time", or "The Destroyer of foulness"), who is expected to appear at the end of Kali Yuga, the time period we are currently in, often declared to be due to last until the 431st millennium AD.
However, some Hindu scriptures list as many as 23 avatars
Balarama is the ninth avatar according to Puranic tradition. However, with the increase in popularity of Buddhism in India, some time in the latter half of the first millennium A.D, a belief that Buddha is the ninth avatar gained prominence. (This is an example of the remarkable ability of Hinduism to assimilate other ideas and cultures; it ultimately resulted in the decline to insignificance of Buddhism in India.) According to this view (prevalent in North India), Balarama is an incarnation of Vishnu's serpent Adi Sesha rather than of Vishnu himself. Buddha is therefore often referred to as Buddhadev ("Lord Buddha") by Hindus. Buddhists, however, do not consider Buddha to be an avatar. A prominent contemporary Hindu thinker who considered Buddha an avatar was Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.
Usage (by analogy with the above) in hacker culture:
Among people working on virtual reality and cyberspace interfaces, an avatar is an icon or representation of a user in a shared virtual reality. The term is sometimes used on MUDs, and also in computer role-playing games. This definition has recently been applied to the Web-based forum or "message board" system, as a picture that a user of such a forum has elected to display alongside his or her posts in order to represent him or herself.
[CMU, Tektronix] root, superuser. There are quite a few Unix machines on which the name of the superuser account is 'avatar' rather than 'root'. This quirk was originated by a CMU hacker who found the terms 'root' and 'superuser' unimaginative, and thought 'avatar' might better impress people with the responsibility they were accepting.
