Narasimha

About Narasimha

Narasimha is Vishnu's fourth avatar — a lion's head on a human body, neither fully man nor beast. He burst from a palace pillar at twilight, in a doorway, and killed the demon Hiranyakashipu on his own thighs using diamond-hard nails. Each detail dodges a clause of the demon's boon of near-invincibility. He came for one devotee: the boy Prahlada, who insisted God lives everywhere, even in stone. Hymns picture him with Lakshmi at his left and a garland of the demon's entrails. His main shrine is Ahobilam in Andhra Pradesh, which houses nine distinct forms of him. Narasimha Jayanti is kept at dusk, the hour he appeared.