Narasimha is Vishnu's fourth avatar, the half-man half-lion who emerged from a pillar to slay the demon Hiranyakashipu and rescue his devotee Prahlada.
Narasimha tore Hiranyakashipu apart on the threshold of his palace at twilight, laying the demon across his lap and disemboweling him with his claws — circumventing every condition of Brahma's boon that had made the tyrant invulnerable.
Narasimha is the fourth avatar of the Dashavatara, the ferocious man-lion form Vishnu assumed to destroy the invulnerable demon Hiranyakashipu and vindicate his young devotee Prahlada.
When Hiranyakashipu struck a pillar demanding to know if Vishnu was inside it, Narasimha burst forth in a storm of mane and claw — half-man, half-lion — and tore the demon apart at twilight on the threshold, circumventing every condition of his boon, while Prahlada watched his deliverer fulfil the promise of divine protection.
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