I don't really have the knowledge for a debate. So I'll remark something and pass on.
From what I know, the 'avatars' don't refer to real people at all. Hinduism is heavily symbolic and this is one of those things.
For details about the ten incarnations of Vishnu, see :
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~wsanf...n_avatars.html
Buddha is included as '9A'. This is the 'modern' version. The conventional version has Balarama (9B here) as 8 and Krishna as 9.
If you rid it of the mythological stuff, a pattern emerges. It starts with a fish, then a amphibian, a boar, a half man and a dwarf. The sixth is 'Rama the Axe-Wielder' (Parasurama), Rama whose weapon was a bow, followed by Balarama who used a plough. In Krishna it reaches the 'modern' man.
The pattern here is that it vaguely follows the theory of evolution - of life forming in water, then moving onto the land. In the dwarf, it reaches an early stage of man. The next three symbolises the stone age (axe), bow & arrow and agriculture. All this might be a coincidence, but a very interesting one.
Moving along in the same way, Kalki stands for the final destruction of the world. This will be followed by another great flood and the cycle of creation will begin again. I don't think the incarnations are really about God at all.
Edited on, March 25, 2005, 3:21 PM GMT, by Tintin.