Kalki

Kalki is the tenth and future avatar of Vishnu, who is expected at the end of the Kali Yuga to destroy injustice and restore dharma. He is shown riding a white horse and holding a blazing sword. In Odisha the strongest link is Chhatia Bata in Jajpur district, a Jagannath temple that the Odia prophetic tradition ties to Kalki and to the end of the age. The Bhavishya Malika, attributed to the saint Achyutananda Das, is the verse collection behind these beliefs. Kalki is not worshipped as an installed deity in most places, and the tradition looks to the future rather than the past.

The Puranic account is in the Bhagavata Purana and the Vishnu Purana. It says that at the end of the Kali Yuga, when kings behave like thieves and dharma is nearly lost, Vishnu will be born as Kalki in the village of Shambhala, as the son of a Brahmin named Vishnuyashas. He will ride a white horse...