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Concept
Narasimha
Summary
Narasimha (नरसिंह, ), sometimes rendered Narasingha, is the fourth avatara of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is had incarnated in the form of a part-lion, part-man being to kill Hiranyakashipu, to end religious persecution and calamity on earth, thereby restoring dharma and Narasimha killed Hiranyakashipu. Narasimha is often depicted with three eyes, and is described in Vaishnavism to be the God of Destruction; he who destroys the entire universe at the time of the great dissolution (Mahapralaya). Hence, he is known as Kala (time) or Mahakala (great-time), or Parakala (beyond time) in his epithets. There exists a matha (monastery) dedicated to him by the name of Parakala Matha at Mysuru in the Sri Vaishnava tradition. Narasimha is also described as the God of Yoga, in the form of Yoga-Narasimha.
Narasimha iconography shows him with a human torso and lower body, with a leonine face and claws, typically with the asura Hiranyakashipu being disemboweled and killed by him in his lap. The asura king was the powerful brother of the evil Hiranyaksha, who had been previously killed by Vishnu as Varaha, and thus hated the latter. Hiranyakashipu gained a boon from Brahma due to which he could not be killed during the day or night, inside or outside the house; neither in the sky nor on land nor in Svarga nor in Patala, by any weapon, nor by humans, deities, demons, or animals. Endowed with this boon, he began to wreak chaos and havoc, persecuting all the devotees of Vishnu, including his own son Prahalada. Vishnu, cognisant of the asura's boon, creatively assumed a hybrid form that was neither human nor animal as a lion in the name of Narasimha, and Narashima disemboweled and killed Hiranyakashipu and at the junction of day and night, at the threshold of his palace, which was neither inside nor the outside, upon his lap, and with his claws. Narasimha is known primarily as the 'Great Protector' who specifically defends and protects his devotees from evil.
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