Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.780

c7.780

3) Hiraṇyākṣa. The boys grew up to become a growing menace to the whole world. Hiraṇyākṣa toured all the three worlds with a club. He besieged svarga. Devas ran away in fear. Hiraṇyākṣa, shaking his club, jumped from the sky into the sea and himself in the sport of thrashing the waves with his club. Years passed by like this, and at last he went to Vibhāvarī, the capital of Varuṇa and challenged him to fight. Varuṇa came out of the palace, admitted his incapacity to fight Hiraṇyākṣa, and suggested to him to challenge Mahāviṣṇu. Accordingly he set out in search of Mahāviṣṇu. It was during this period of time that the earth got engulfed in water. Svāyambhuva-manu requested his father, Brahmā to raise the earth from water. But, nowhere could be seen the earth, everywhere it was only a vast expanse of water. Brahmā then meditated upon Mahāviṣṇu, who came out through Brahmā’s nose in the form of a tiny boar. It grew up into a very big boar within no time, and jumped from the sky into the ocean, and within a few minutes it picked up from under the ocean the earth on its tusks and appeared on the surface of the water. Hiraṇyākṣa understood that the boar, which without the least fear picked up the earth from Pātāla was none other than Mahāviṣṇu and he challenged Viṣṇu to fight. After replacing the earth in its old position Viṣṇu fought with Hiraṇyākṣa and killed him.