Hiranyakashipu had four sons named Prahlada, Anuhrada, Samhrada and Hrada. (The more usual names are Prahlada, Anuhlada, Samhlada and Hlada.) Accompanied by Hirayakashipu’s demon soldiers, these four sons came out to fight with the being easily repelled all of these. The four princes then unleashed divine weapons on the being. Prahlada used brahmastra, Anuhrada vaishnavastra, Samhrada koumarastra and Hrada agneyastra. But these divine weapons could do the wonderful being no harm. He merely picked up the princes and flung them far away.
On seeing that his sons had thus been disposed of, Hiranyakashipu came to fight. He gave the being a resounding kick on his chest and the creature fled in pain to Vishnu.
Vishnu now realised that he would have to take care of Hiranyakashipu himself. He adopted the form of a being who was a half-man and half-lion. Since nara means man and simha means lion, this came to be known as the narasimha incarnation (avatara) of Vishnu.
“Go and kill this peculiar creature,” Hiranyakashipu instructed Prahrada.
Prahrada and his brothers tried to fight with Vishnu, but were defeated easily. Hiranyakashipu now sent his brother Hiranyakasha to fight. Hiranyakasha used several weapons on Vishnu, including the diving weapon known as pashupata. But these weapons could do Vishnu no harm.
Meanwhile, Prahrada had realised that this being could be none other than Vishnu. He started to pray to Vishnu. He requested his brothers, uncle and father not to fight with Vishnu. But Hiranyakashipu’s chest with his claws and thereby killed him. He also killed Anuhrada, Samhrada and Hrada.
(A fairly common story in the Puranas, such as the Vishnu Purana, is the story of Prahlada. Despite being Hiranyakashipu’s son, Prahlada was devoted to Vishnu from his childhood. Hiranyakashipu had no desire to have a son who was devoted to Vishnu and did his level best to kill Prahlada. But Prahlada was protected by Vishnu and survived all these attempts. In the final incident, narasimha appeared while Hiranyakashipu was arguing with Prahlada and killed the demon-king. Vishnu then crowned Prahlada king in Hiranyakashipu’s place. There was no question of Hiranyaksha becoming king after Hiranyakashipu. In the more common account, Hiranyaksha was the elder brother and had already been killed by Vishnu in his boar (varaha) incarnation. It was Hiranyakasha’s death that led to Hiranyakashipu’s hatred of Vishnu. There is thus some variance between this more common account and that related by the Kurma Purana.)
12.14 Hiranyaksha
After Hiranyakashipu died, Hiranyaksha became the king of the demons.
Hiranyaksha promptly began to oppress the world. He defeated the gods and drove them out of heaven. He also took the earth down to the underworld. The gods again went to Brahma in search of a solution and Brahma took them to Vishnu. They prayed to Vishnu so that Hiranyaksha might be killed.
Vishnu adopted the form of a boar and killed Hiranyaksha. He also raised the earth up to its rightful place. (This was the story that was alluded to when the Kurma Purana mentioned Vishnu’s boar incarnation.)
When Hiranyaksha was killed, Prahlada became the king of demons. Initially, he ruled well. He worshipped Vishnu and performed yajnas. The kingdom thrived and prospered. But on one occasion, Prahrada forgot to worship a brahmana through inadvertence.
The brahmana was furious as he thought that Prahrada had done this knowingly. “You have dared to ignore me because you thank that you are blessed by Vishnu,” said the brahmana. “I curse you that you will forget all about Vishnu. Your delusions will make you fight with Vishnu and you will lose all your powers.”
As a result of the brahmana’s curse, Prahrada deviated from the righteous path. He ignored the brahmanas and the Vedas. He desired to have revenge on Vishnu for having killed his father and uncle. Prahlada fought a long and bitter war with Vishnu. When he was eventually defeated by Vishnu, he realised the folly of his evil ways and sought refuge with Vishnu.
After Prahrada’s death, Hiranyaksha’s son Andhaka became the king of the demons.
12.15 A Digression on Goutama
Many years ago, there was a terrible drought on earth. There was no food to be had and famine prevailed.
There were several sages who lived in the forest, and they too, suffered from a lack of food.
Goutama was a very powerful sage and he had a hermitage in the forest. Such were the powers that Goutama had that it never stopped raining in his hermitage. There was no famine there and plenty of food was to be had. The other sages therefore went to Goutama’s hermitage and begged him to provide them with food and shelter. This request Goutama readily agreed to, and the sages lived there happily.
After twelve years had passed, it began to rain again. The drought had passed and foodgrains started to grow. The sages no begged their leave of Goutama.
“Stay for a few more days,” said Goutama. “Be my guests and bless my household.”
The sages tarried, but they were jealous of Goutama and his powers. They therefore plotted to bring about Goutama’s downfall. With their own powers, they created a black calf. This calf was nothing but an illusion. But having created it, the sages sent it to Goutama. Goutama found the calf wandering around and decided to take it to his cowshed. But as soon as he touched the calf, the calf seemed to die. All this was because of the illusion, but Goutama did not know this. He was thunderstruck at having killed a cow.
“You are evil, you have killed a cow,” the sages told Goutama. “It would be a sin to remain as your guest. We are leaving.”
By then, Goutama had got to know that the calf had been an illusion. He was extremely angry with the sages and cursed them, “because you have been evil, you have deviate from the path laid down by the Vedas. You will rot in hell and will have to be born several times to be freed of your sins.”
The sages started to pray to Vishnu and Shiva. They wished that their sins might be cleansed.
“What shall we do with these sages?” Shiva asked Vishnu. “Shall we pardon them? They are praying for deliverance.”
“Never,” replied Vishnu. “Those who do not follow what is laid down in the Vedas will surely rot in hell. But since they are not permitted to follow the sacred shastras, let us compose some other shastras for them. They will follow those evil shastras, rot in hell and be born on earth several times. That is their penance.”
To delude the sages, Shiva himself pretended to be a great religious teacher. He preached evil ways and the stupid brahmanas began to follow what he preached.
12.16 Andhaka
While Shiva was gone, he left his companion Nandi to look after his household. He also gave Vishnu the overall responsibility of ensuring that all was well with Parvati and the gods and the sages.
Realising that Shiva was away, Andhaka thought that this was the opportune moment for abducting Parvati. He found that Nandi stood guard at the entrance to Shiva’s house and began to fight with Nandi. Nandi struck Andhaka on the chest with a trident.
This angered Andhaka and he created a thousand other demons who were just like him in appearance. This army of demons defeated Nandi and the gods. Nandi did not know what to do and started to pray to Vishnu. Vishnu created some goddesses from his body and these goddesses killed the demon soldiers. Andhaka also fled.
After twelve years had passed, Shiva returned and learnt what had transpired.
By then, Andhaka had recovered and he returned, determined in his bid to abduct Parvati. Both Shiva and Vishnu started to fight with Andhaka’s army.
Vishnu told Shiva, “Kill this demon. No one but you can kill Andhaka. Please kill the demon and deliver the universe.”
Shiva pierced Andhaka’s chest with a trident. He held the trident aloft, with Andhaka transfixed to one of its prongs. And with his trident held aloft, Shiva began to dance.
But all the evil had deserted Andhaka’s body and mind as soon as he had been pierced by Shiva’s trident. He started to pray to Shiva. These prayers pleased Shiva.
He lowered the trident and told Andhaka, “I am pleased with your prayers. My companions are known as the ganas. Stay by my side and be a ganapati, that is, a lord over the ganas. You will be Nandi’s companion.”
12.17 Vali
With Andhaka thus taken care of, Prahrada’s son Virochana became the king of the demons. He ruled his kingdom well.
There was a sage named Sanatakumara who once went to visit Virochana. Virochana was delighted to see the sage and Sanatakumara instructed Virochana on the true nature of the universe. These teachings so impressed Virochana that he no longer had any desire to be a king. He went off to meditate, after having crowned his son, Vali, as the king of the demons.
Vali was a good and righteous king. He ruled well and observed religious rites faithfully. But he defeated Indra and the other gods and won over heaven from them. Indra and the other gods started to pray to Vishnu for deliverance.
The mother of all the gods was Aditi and she was despondent at seeing her children suffer thus. She too, started to pray to Vishnu. Stirred by these prayers, Vishnu appeared before Aditi.
“What boon do you desire?” he asked.
“Please grant me the boon that you will be born as my son.” replied Aditi. “And as my son, you will take care of Vali.”
Vishnu granted the boon and was born as Aditi’s son. As Aditi’s son, Vishnu studied the Vedas under the sage Bharadvaja.
Meanwhile, Vali arranged a yajna and Vishnu came to attend the ceremony in the form of a dwarf (vamana). (In more usual accounts, such as the Bhagavata Purana, Vishnu was born as a dwarf.)
Vali was not going to refuse anything to anyone on the occasion of the sacrifice. As soon as he saw the dwarf, he worshipped him and said, “I am fortunate that you have come to attend my ceremony. Please tell me what I can do for you.”
“Grant me as much of land as can be covered in three of my footsteps,” replied the dwarf.
This boon Vali granted. The dwarf immediately assumed a gigantic form. With one footstep, Vishnu covered the entire earth. With a second, he covered the sky. And with the third and final footstep, he covered heaven. The entire universe is inside and egg (anda) and outside the egg there is water. Vishnu’s foot cracked the shell of the egg and some of the water that was outside, poured in. This water began to flow through the sky and became the heavenly Ganga. (The story of the heavenly Ganga (identified as the Milky Way) descending to earth is a separate story. The story of Ganga being born from Vishnu’s body is given in the Brahmavaivarta Purana.)
Having traversed all the land that was available, Vishnu resumed his form of a dwarf.
“You have now donated to me all the three worlds,” he told Vali. “Where will you stay?”
“I seek refuge with you,” was Vali’s answer.
Vishnu then instructed Vali to go and live in the underworld. As for heaven, it was restored to Indra.
This is the story of Vishnu’s dwarf (vamana) incarnation.
