Since 2005 I've been learning Odissi, the classical dance style from East-India, with Gudrun Märtins in Hamburg, Germany, and with Sangeeta Dash in Pondicherry, India. With this paper, I would like to introduce one of my favourite dance items, the "Dashavatara" (choreographed by Guru Devaprasad Das), in a slightly different way by giving background information in form of the text sources in Sanskrit with English (by Lee Siegel) and Japanese (by Yasushi Ogura) translation as well as the myths (according to Barbara Stoler Miller), which are carried along between the lines of the original poem.

The textual basis for this dance is a poem, named Gītagovinda, written by the poet Jayadeva at the end of the 12th century. In this extensive work, the stories about the life of Krishna are told in a loving, but sometimes frighteningly detailled manner. >>The mundane and cosmic levels of his activity are interwoven in the narratives to encompass elements from various sources in a complex mythic structure.［1］The basic account includes Krishna's miraculous birth, his concealment among cowherds to protect him from his demonic uncle Kaṁsa, his childhood pranks and miraculous deeds in the cowherd's village, his youthful sexual play in the forrest with the cowherdesses of Vraja ［and, above all, his deep love of cosmic power in relation to Rādhā］, his destruction of demons, his defeat and killing of Kaṁsa, his role in the Bharata war as the cunning and unscrupulous counsellor-cousin of the five Pāṇḍava brothers, and his violent death. In the Bhagavadgītā, he teaches a syncretic religion of devotion to his Pāṇḍava companion Arjuna and reveals himself to be the all-God, who is called Vishnu［according to the texts of Mahābhārata and Bhagavadgītā］<< (Barbara Stoler Miller 1977, p. 17-18).

The first song of the Gītagovinda is honoring Kṛṣṇa［2］(also named as Keśava ［3］, Jagadīśa ［4］or Hari［5］) and tells the story of Dashāvatara (the ten avatars), or Dashavidharūpa (the ten fold form), the story of how he reincarnates in ten different forms/ avatars into the world to support what is good. >>The ten forms of Jagadīśa are a variant of the ten incarnations of Vishnu; in Purāṇic literature Krishna instead of Balarāma is usually the eights incarnation. The incarnations were originally independent legends that came to venter non Vishnu as the preserver of order when it is imperiled. Various aspects of the legends are emphasised in different texts. The content of Gītagovinda is not traceable to any single source.［...］In the terminology of Indian esthetics, the song of invocation to Krishna's tenfold form expresses the mood of wonder (adbhutarasa), whose presence is essential to Jayadeva's religious transformation of the mood of erotic love (śṛṅgārarasa).<< (Barbara Stoler Miller 1977, p. 20-21)

The ten avatars are: Mīnaśarīra, Kacchaparūpa, Śūkararūpa, Naraharirūpa, Vāmanarūpa, Bhṛgupatirūpa, Rāmaśarīra, Haladhararūpa, Buddhaśarīra and Kalkiśarīra. This concept of the ten avatars reminds of the biological and historical evolution of life and civilisation on earth. Thus the first incarnations show the transition of life from water to land and from there to man. The latter describes various forms of society from archaic, militant or rude forms to a form that develop compassion and love for humans and animals. According to the myths［6］we are today living in the time of the ninth incarnation, of Buddhaśarīra, and the tenth incarnation has not yet appeared.