An avatar (avatara) in Hindu mythology is an earthly form taken by a deity, especially by the god Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi,. The most famous of the Vishnu avatars are Rama, the hero of the epic the Rāmāyana, and Krishna, who preaches the great truths of the universe to the hero Arjuna in the Bhagavadgita. Incarnations of Lakshmi include Draupadi, the wife of the Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata, and Sita, the wife of Rama in the Rāmāyana.