Image: (An) Avatar of Vishnu in the form of the man-lion Narasimha, Holika Holi, 12th Century Indian Art, Museum of San Francisco

Description: The above sculptor is from the permanent collection of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. The story: According to one symbolic Hindu myth, there was a king named Hiranyakashipu who, like a lot of demons and Asuras, had the intense desire to be immortal. To fulfill this desire he performed the required Tapas (penance) until he was granted a boon by Brahma. Since the God's do not usually grant the boon of immortality, he used his guile and cunning to get a boon which he thought made him immortal. The boon gave Hiranyakashyapu five special powers: he could be killed by neither a human being nor an animal, neither indoors nor outdoors, neither at day nor at night, neither by astra (weapons that are launched) nor by any shastra (weapons that are hand held), and neither on land nor in water or air. As this wish was granted, Hiranyakashyapu felt he was invincible, which made him arrogant. Hiranyakashyapu decreed that only he be worshiped as a God, punished and killed anyone who did not accept his orders. His son Prahlad disagreed with his father, and refused to worship his father as a god. He continued believing and worshipping Lord Vishnu. This made Hiranyakashipu very angry and he made various attempts to kill Prahlad. During a particular attempt on Prahlad's life, King Hiranyakashyapu called upon his sister Holika for help. Holika had a special cloak garment that prevented her from being harmed by fire. Hiranyakashyapu asked her to sit on a bonfire with Prahlad, by tricking the boy to sit on her lap. However, as the fire roared, the garment flew from Holika and covered Prahlad. Holika burnt to death, Prahlad came out unharmed. Vishnu appeared in the form of Narasimha - half human and half lion, at dusk when it was neither day nor night yet, took Hiranyakashyapu at a doorstep which was neither indoors nor outdoors, placed him on his lap which was neither land, water nor air, and then used the lion claws over Hiranyakashyapu - which was neither a hand held weapon nor a launched weapon. In this form, the boon of five special powers granted to Hiranyakashyapu were no longer useful. Hiranyakashyapu was killed. Prahlad and the kingdom of human beings were thus free from the compulsion and fear of Hiranyakashyapu. The good was victorious over evil.
Title: (An) Avatar of Vishnu in the form of the man-lion Narasimha, Holika Holi, 12th Century Indian Art, Museum of San Francisco
Credit: Flickr: The Hindu deity Vishnu in the form of the man-lion Narasimha - 12th Century - Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
Author: Marshall Astor
Permission: This image, which was originally posted to Flickr, was uploaded to Commons using Flickr upload bot on 21 November 2013, 02:40 by Lisa.davis. On that date, it was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the license indicated. .mw-parser-output .responsive-license-cc{clear:both;text-align:center;box-sizing:border-box;width:100%;justify-content:space-around;align-items:center;margin:0.5em auto;background-color:#f9f9f9;border:2px solid #e0e0e0;border-spacing:8px;display:flex}.mw-parser-output .responsive-license-cc div{margin:4px}.mw-parser-output .rlicense-text div{margin:0.5em auto}@media screen and (max-width:640px){.mw-parser-output .responsive-license-cc{flex-flow:column}.mw-parser-output .rlicense-text{order:1}} This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix – to adapt the work Under the following conditions: attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0CC BY-SA 2.0 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 truetrue
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