Verse 20

¹⁷The Unfallen, in the form of a swan, spoke the yoga of the self; so did Datta, and Kumara, and Rsabha the Bhagavan, our father. Visnu came down by a portion for the good of the worlds, and by that same slayer of Madhu the scriptures were brought back in the horse-headed form. ¹⁸In the fish, Manu was guarded through the dissolution, and the earth and the plants with him. In the boar, the son of Diti was killed as he lifted the earth out of the waters. In the tortoise, the mountain was held on his own back at the churning for nectar. And he loosed the elephant king, who had come to him in his pain, from the crocodile.

¹⁹In the man-lion he killed the lord of the demons, so that the good need not be afraid: for the wandering ascetics and the sages who had fallen into the sea and were praising him, and for Sakra, who had gone into the dark after killing Vrtra, and for the gods' women shut away in the demon's house with nobody to protect them. ²⁰In the battle of gods and antigods he killed the lords of the Daityas for the gods' sake, and in the intervals he upheld the worlds by his portions. Then, becoming Vamana, he took this earth from Bali by the trick of asking, and gave it to the sons of Aditi.