South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses c8.s3.12

c8.s3.12

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-Narasimha. Yōga-Narasimha (fig. 19) is another form in which the god is seen squatting in a meditative mood. Simhāchalam in the Vizagapatam district, Ahōbalam in the Kurnool district and Nāmakkal¹ 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.