Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/46

26 by Vishnu in his Varāha-avatār. Hiranyakasipu then became the king of the demons and vowed eternal war with Vishnu. His young son, Prahlāda, however, became a devoted adherent of Vishnu and was always praising him as the all-pervading lord of the universe. Exasperated with this, Hiranyakasipu asked the young boy whether his god Vishnu,if he was all-pervasive, could be found in the pillar in front of him; and then hacked at it with his sword. The pillar cleft in twain and out burst from it, to the astonishment of Hiranyakasipu, the angry god in the shape of a Man-lion,(fig. 16), who forthwith tore to pieces the impious demon king.

The angry god is called Ugra (the terrible)-Narasimha (figs. 17 and 18). When, however,his anger subsided at the earnest prayers of Prahlāda he became serene and in this form he is known as Lakshmī-Yōga-Narasimha (fig.19)is another form in which the god is seensquatting in a meditative mood. Simhāchalam in the Vizagapatam district, Ahōbalam in the Kurnool district and Nāmakkal in the Trichinopoly district may be mentioned among the places sacred to Narasimha. The usual Vaishnava symbols, sankha (conch) and chakra (discus), are seen in the two upper hands of the image of Narasimha in all his forms. The monolithic Ugra-Narasimha found in the ruins of Vijayanagara was there established by king Krishnarāya in A.D. 1528. It may be noted that here the god, though called Ugra-Narasimha, is not represented, as may be expected, in the posture of splitting open the bowels of the demon Hiranyakasipu.

Hēmādri states that Narasimha must be represented with muscular shoulders, a stout neck and a slender waist. Half man and half lion, his face must be fiery and so also the mane round it. Standing with his right foot bent forward (ālidha) he splits with his sharp nails the breast of the tyrant Hiranyakasipu, who, as the wise men say, is an embodiment of ignorance. The Pāncharālrāgama thus describes the form of Narasimha suited for meditation :- " (Terrible) like flaming fire, he has a lion-face with a human body, furious fangs, a protruding tongue, an open mouth, a thick mane and muscular chest. He stands in the ālidha posture in an angry mood and splits the breast of the giant, thrown flat upon his thigh, with the sharp nails of both his hands. In his two other hands he holds the symbols' of the club and the discus." The Mayatmata, while giving almost