Hiranyakashipu and his wife Kayadhu bore a son whose devotion would undo his father's kingdom — Prahlada, the child who worshipped Vishnu despite every torment the demon king inflicted to break his faith.
Prahlada fathered Virochana, continuing the asura lineage from devotee to demon king — Virochana would in turn sire Bali, the generous ruler whom Vishnu would visit as the dwarf Vamana.
Hiranyakashipu ordered his sister Holika to sit with Prahlada on a blazing pyre, trusting her boon of fire-immunity to survive while the boy burned. But Vishnu's grace shielded Prahlada and stripped Holika of her protection — she was consumed by the flames while the child emerged unharmed.
While Prahlada was still in his mother Kayadhu's womb, Narada instructed him in devotion to Vishnu. The unborn child absorbed every word, and when he emerged into Hiranyakashipu's court he was already an unshakable devotee — singing Vishnu's praises to his demon father's mounting fury.
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.
Prahlada chanted Vishnu's names through fire, poison, trampling elephants, and serpent pits — every torture Hiranyakashipu devised only deepened the child's devotion, until Vishnu himself descended as Narasimha to destroy the tyrant and vindicate his devotee.
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