His forms are first mentioned in Agni Purana, the Rūpamaṇḍana, and the Aparājitapṛcchā. The twenty-four forms of Vishnu seem to have been conceived in the Mahabharata.
The names of these aspects of the deity are ritually chanted in daily prayer by adherents.
They are believed to be the most significant of the thousand names of the deity featured in the Vishnu Sahasranama. These aspects are described to represent the central tenets of the Pancharatra tradition. The chaturvimshatimurti ( Sanskrit: चतुर्विंशतिमूर्ति, romanized: Caturviṃśatimūrti, lit.'twenty-four forms') is the representation of twenty-four aspects of the deity Vishnu in Hindu iconography.