Shloka 4
Matsya Purana — The Advent of Narasiṃha and Hiraṇyakaśipu’s Weapon-Assault
*प्रह्लाद उवाच महाबाहो महाराज दैत्यानामादिसंभव न श्रुतं न च नो दृष्टं नारसिंहमिदं वपुः //
*prahlāda uvāca mahābāho mahārāja daityānāmādisaṃbhava na śrutaṃ na ca no dṛṣṭaṃ nārasiṃhamidaṃ vapuḥ //
Prahlāda said: “O mighty-armed great king, prime progenitor of the Daityas—this man-lion form has neither been heard of by us nor ever seen by us.”
FAQs
This verse does not discuss pralaya; it emphasizes the unprecedented, previously unknown manifestation of the Narasimha avatāra—an unexpected divine intervention rather than cosmic dissolution.
By addressing the king as the ‘progenitor of the Daityas’ and stressing that the divine form is beyond ordinary knowledge, the verse implies a ruler’s duty to remain humble before dharma and realities that exceed lineage-pride and mere tradition.
No explicit Vāstu or ritual procedure appears here; the key takeaway is iconographic—Narasimha’s ‘man-lion form’ is presented as a rare, extraordinary divine embodiment, relevant to later pratima-lakṣaṇa (iconography) discussions.