The 10 Avatars of Vishnu

We recently went to Bhubaneshwar and picked up a painting depicting the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu. I amazingly enough learnt how to draw this art form ten years back when I was at LSR. We had an artist from Orissa who came and showed us how to do it. In fact, if I look hard enough, I may be able to find the sketch I did.

It is a fascinating story which also coincides somewhat with the natural history of time. All items in italics have been taken from Wikipedia. The first avatar is Matsya,
Matsya, the fish-avatar who saved Manu - the progeniter of mankind from the great deluge and rescued the Vedic scriptures by killing a demon
The second is Kurma,
Kurma, the tortoise-avatar, who helped in the Samudra manthan - the churning of the ocean
The third is
Varaha, the boar-avatar, who rescued the earth from the ocean, by killing her kidnapper-demon Hiranyaksha
The fourth is
Narasimha, the half man-half lion avatar, who killed the tyrant demon-king Hiranyakashipu, to rescue the demon's son Prahlada, who was a Vishnu-devotee
The fifth is
Vamana, the dwarf-avatar, who defeated the demon-king
The sixth is
Bali Parashurama, sage with the axe who killed the thousand-armed king Kartavirya Arjuna
The seventh is
Rama, the king of Ayodhya and the hero of the Hindu epic Ramayana
The eighth is
Krishna, the king of Dwarka, a central character in the Bhagavata Purana and the Mahabharata and reciter of Bhagavad Gita
The ninth is
Gautama Buddha
The tenth is
Kalki ("Eternity", or "time", or "The Destroyer of foulness"), who is expected to appear at the end of Kali Yuga.
Courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar

The ten most well known descents of Vishnu are collectively known as the Dasavatara (Sanskrit: ten avatars). This list is included in the Garuda Purana (1.86.10"11).
The first four are said to have appeared in the Satya Yuga (the first of the four Yugas or ages in the time cycle described within Hinduism). The next three avatars appeared in the Treta Yuga, the eighth descent in the Dwapara Yuga and the ninth in the Kali Yuga. The tenth, Kalki, is predicted to appear at the end of the Kali Yuga.