The Sthalapurana of Ahobilam  gives an account of nine forms of Narasimha worshipped here. In short, the Sthalapurana of the temple, which is said to be Brahmanda Puranatargata (part of Brahmanda Purana) with ten chapters, described the greatness of Kshetra in the first chapter. The second chapter of the Purana narrates the performance of the penance of Garuda for the darshana of the Lord. The third chapter gives an account of the sacred ponds of the place. The fourth chapter furnishes an account of the nine temples of Narasimha in his nine forms and performances of the penances by Bramha, Bharadvaja, Gobhila and Bhargava Rama. The fifth chapter relates the traditional story of Jaya and Vijaya and their birth as Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasipu respectively and the assurance given by the Lord to the gods for their protection. The sixth chapter describes, at length, the child hood of Prahlada and the atrocities perpetrated against him by his father. The seventh chapter narrates the devotion of Prahlada of the Lord, birth of Lord Narasimha and the destruction of the demon, Hiranyaksha .The eighth chapter mentions the Sarabhavatara and his destruction by Lord Narasimha. The ninth chapter states explicitly the untiring efforts of Bhairava for the river Bhavanasini and his becoming Kshetrapala of the place. The last chapter clearly states that worship to the deity of the Lord is the only means for attaining salvation to the common people.

Brahma, Lord Sri Ram and Lord Srinivasa, the most popular deity of Tirumala, Tirupathi also worshipped Lord Narasimha. The Lord of Ahobila Narasimha is referred to as “Peria Perumal” (God of gods) in Sri Vaishnava tradition. It is stated that when Sri Rama was in the forest, we know from Seshadharma that he prayed to the Lord of Sri Ahobila with Panchamrta Stotra. In Archavatara, Lord Srinivasa had married Padmavati, only after offering worship to Sri Narasimha of this mountain.

Traditional accounts depicted in Ahobilam Kaifiyat:
In the days of yore when truth and dharma prevailed, great heat was observed near the mountain cave of Ahobila. According to legend when grass was put in the cave, it caught fire and smoke emitted. Several great rishis lived here for a time. After sometime, with the knowledge that these great places would become common visiting place in the Kali age, they left for the northern lands, covering up the Narasimha cave with boulders. Traditionally, therefore this place is being called as Narasimha Kshetra.

Ahobila kaifiyat also mentions about King Prataprudra of Kakatiya dynasty becoming a devotee of Lord Narasimha. Pratap maharaj was an ardent Shiva bhakta. Every morning before beginning his duties, he would first have a golden Shiva lingam cast, then he would worship the linga and later gift the lingam in charity. This daily puja of his was never altered. Once he went hunting near the Ahobala forest accompanied by his ministers, priests etc. As he was getting ready for his Shiva aradhana, it was brought to his notice that however hard the goldsmith tried his best to cast a Shiva Lingam, the lingam was forming itself into Narasimha form. Everyone present was mystified. Without his Shiva aradhana and without taking any food, the king went to sleep that day. In his dream, Lord Narasimha appeared and dictated the king to renovate the temple at Ahobalam. Lord also directed the king to contact a boy Srinivasa and ask him to come to Ahobilam to establish the daily puja, rituals etc. The king immediately arranged for the temple renovation. When word was sent to Srinivasacharya, son of Kidambi keshavacharya of Melkotte, he came to Ahobilam. Young Srinivas was an erudite vaishnava scholar and had previously upheld the merits of Sri Ramanauja’s teachings in the court of King Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagar. When Srinivasa reached Ahobilam, the king handed him over the golden cast of Lord Narasimha to worship hence forth. The king Prataprudra also became a vaishnava. Later Lord Narasimha personally appeared as a yogi and gave sannyasa to Srinivasa and he became to be known as Satagopa yati. He became the founder of Ahobilam Matha and it is his successors who are now the Jeeyars of Ahobilam math. The Golden Deity of Narasimha given to Srinivasa (Satagopa yati) is still in possession of Ahobilam matha jeeyars. It is said that during the festivals, this Deity is carried up the hill to upper Ahobilam and then return back to lower ahobilam. Invariably whenever Lord is carried from upper ahobilam back down, it is said that heavy rainfall occurs (even today).

An inspiring story of 33rd jeeyar of ahobilam matha:
One day the jeeyar was going through dense forest accompanied by his disciples, journeying from Ahobilam to Mysore. On the way, the Jeeyar decided to halt at a spot near a small rivulet to perform his evening puja to his Lord. As he was settling down to offer prayers, there was a commotion and his disciples rushed to him saying that dacoits had come to loot their property. The unperturbed Jeeyar went to meet the leader of the dacoit gang and told him that they had nothing which belonged to them. Everything they possessed belonged to God and requested him to take it after he finished his puja to God. The leader agreed. The jeeyar commenced his puja. He offered “Chakkarai Pongal Sweet prepared out of rice and jaggery” to the Lord. He did Mangala arati to the deity 3 times and at the end of third round, all dacoits suddenly fell at the feet of Jeeyar and asked him to protect them saying that a large number of lions were attacking them. The Jeeyar could not see the lions but he realized that his Lord had come to rescue him. He requested the lions to disappear. The dacoits who had come to rob fell at his feet begging forgiveness and then escorted the jeeyar safely out of the forest.

Chenchu Parinaya in folklore:

There are a number of popular legends of Narasimha, which are widely popular among the Chenchus, who are closely associated with Ahobilam. The popular legend is that “When Lord Vishnu incarnated as Narasimha, the Golden Lakshmi was born in the Chenchu tribe and both were living very happily. On account of this, the Lord is said to have refused to go back to Vaikuntam. The love making of Lord Narasimha with Chenchita, a tribal woman is famous in many folk songs of the place. The sculptures of Narasimha and Chenchita on the pillars of the temple of upper and lower Ahobilam and Vasantika Parinayam, a Sanskrit drama, written by Jiyar, the seventh pontiff of Ahobila math, describing the marriage of Lord Narasimha with Chenchita , lend support to the popular legend. There are several folk songs on the lips of many people of this region. These folk songs are more imaginative than historical and add various episodes to the story of Chenchita. They depict the love episode between Lord Narasmiha and Chenchita.

Sometime during the 14th century:
The Vijayanagara empire was declining in importance but by the grace of the Lord of Ahobilam, the kingdom was resurrected through Saluva Narasimha.

Long ago King Saluva Mangu restored the  deity of the temple of Srirangam, had a son called Gautha who was then ruling Chandragiri. Gautha’s son called Gunda had a wife called Mallambika. They didn’t have any children for a long time. To get their desires fulfilled they had observed a number of vows and finally retired to Ahobilam for performing penance. Pleased with their penance, Lord Narasimha appeared to the king in a dream and blessed him with a son possessing of all the virtues and ordained that he should rule the empire. The king, later, narrated this to his wife. The king was blessed with a son whom they named Narasimha after the god of Ahobilam. In due course, Saluva Narasimha proved to be a very good king of the Vijayanagara Empire and protected the Vedic culture.

In the year 1579 A.D, the forces of Ibrahim Ali Kutub Shah, the Sultan of Golconda, attacked Ahobilam. They completely demolished the temple structures , plundered the jewel-studded deities of Lord Lakshmi Narasimha and carried them to Golconda. The deities were brought into presence of the sultan by one MurahariRao. When the deity of Narasimha which was made of gold and silver and studded with precious rubies was shown to him along with the other treasures looted at Ahobilam, the Sultan was  perplexed and stunned. stunned. He could not speak since then and the night, he vomited blood and died. According to some, the exact circumstances in which Ibrahim Kutub Shah, second in succession to KuliKutu Shah died remained mysterious. However After with this event, the attitude of the subsequent rulers of Golkonda underwent a remarkable change towards the Hindus, the Hindu temples and the Hindu culture.

Vedaachal and Garudaadri :
Some other account also adds up to the reason for these names. Many of the mountain peaks here have shape of Garuda, so the name Garudadri. Also Garuda did his penance to see Lord’s form as mentioned before. Regarding Vedachal, another version mentions that once a demon Somaka stole Vedas from Brahma. Lord Brahma came here and prayed. Lord then killed Somaka and restored Vedas back to Brahma on this hill.

Adi Sankaracharya and his disciple Sunanda:

Once when Adi Sankara along with his disciples was going to Ahobalam, he came across a hunter. The hunter told the acharya that for a long time he had been doing “Bhairava aradhana” and he had to offer either a king or a sannyasi as a sacrifice for completing his puja so that his prayers are answered. The sannyasi Adi sankara decided to allow his body to be sacrificed by hunter. He told the hunter to choose a time when his disciples won’t be around him and he can then behead him and offer him as sacrifice. The hunter was very pleased at the proposal. Hunter waited for the opportunity. One of very closed disciples of Adi sankaracharya, Sunanda came to know about this. So he intensely prayed to his Deity Lord Narasimha of Ahobalam to spare the life of his guru. Lord Narasimha personally manifested himself and killed the hunter and rescued Adi Sankaracharya. The place where Adi sankara was doing his penance and where the hunter was killed came to be known as Bhairava Kunda.

Sunanda was born in Ahobilam and was a devotee of Lord from his birth. He was originally of name Vishnu Sharma. His father was a great pandit named Madhavacharya and mother was Lakshmi devi. When both parents had no children for a long time, they prayed to Lord at Ahobalam.In answer to their prayers, this child was born. As he grew up, his parents died and he gave up all his wealth and property to Lord at Ahobalam. He stayed at the temple offering his services fulltime. Once Lord appeared in his dream and told him to take his bath in Bhavanashini river. A old brahmin would appear to Sunanda and would give him a precious stone. This stone would make anyone invisible when it is kept inside one’s mouth. In that invisible form, he was then advised to go to Kashi (Varanasi) and see Adi Sankaracharya. He was told that at that time there would be a debate going on between Adi Sankara and an old Brahmin for about 8 days. He was advised to inform Adi sankara that the old Brahmin he was debating was Srila Vyasadeva. The Lord also told him that after this good deed done by him, Adi Sankaracharya would accept him as his favorite disciple. The next day, things happened as predicted and Sunanda became acharya’s favorite disciple. This caused heartburn amongst the other disciples who wondered how a disciple who came later than them could become the Acharya’s favorite disciple. Coming to know of this, Adi Sankara decided to teach all other disciples a lesson. One day acharya went to other banks of Ganga to take bath and from there he called out to Sunanda to come to him. Even though he was on opposite sides of Ganga, Sunanda decided to answer the call of his guru. He thought that Guru is representative of Lord and that if he put full faith, he could cross the river easily. With faith on Lord and his Guru, he entered the river. A miracle occurred. He was able to walk across the river and wherever his feet touched the water, a lotus would come under the feet. Thus he crossed the river stepping on various lotuses all the time repeating the names of Ahobalam Narasimha and meditating on the feet of his Guru (Paad Padma). Other disciples who saw the miracle then realized the greatness of Sunanda. From that day on, Sunanda came to be known as Padma Paad.

Laxmidevi as Chenchu laxmi:

Once upon a time Samudra raja (ocean god) was cursed to be born in a tribe of name Chenchu. Sri Mahalaxmi manifested herself as his daughter known as Chenchu laxmi. Being aware of this, Lord came down adorning role as a Chenchu. Samudra raja was not aware of this and felt that his aristocratic daughter had fallen in love with an ordinary chenchu man. He decided to kill him. At that time, Lord Narahari appeared and told him the truth. The Lord’s marriage with Chenchu laxmi was celebrated and Samudra raja also got released from his curse. Because Lord married a lady belonging to chenchu tribe the Lord became their son in law. Even today during the utsavas, the chenchu tribes bring honey, sandal paste, clothes and other forest products and offer them to Lord, who is their son in law. They affectionately call him “Obulaesudu” (short version of Ahobalesudu Lord of Ahobalam). A sanskrit drama “Vasantika Parinaya” written by the seventh Jeeyar of the Ahobala matha describes the marriage of the Lord with Chenchu laxmi.

Prahlad Maharaj

By H.H. Satsvarupa das Goswami

From the most ripened vedic wisdom, Srimad Bhagavatam describes the story of sublime devotion.

Prahlad Maharaj was a boy, five years old, preached to his school-fellows of their urgent need for taking to Krishna Consciousness. Prahlad was the son of a very powerful atheist king, Hiranyakashipu. Since his birth he was in the hands of “Daityas,” or enemies of God. The nurses who picked him up, the court attendants, his mother, the court children-all were obsessed with the illusion that the body is the self, and there was no talk of Krishna, the supreme Spirit. Like most boys born in our contemporary civilization, Prahlad’s chances for hearing any truth about the Supreme Personality of Godhead were almost nil.

Yet every day when the teacher would take a recess and leave the school room, this five old boy would address his fellows in this way: “My dear atheist friends, now it is the time to prosecute Krishna Consciousness, at this young age. Listen, my fellow demons, we have to start now! I know you want sense gratification, but we have to start Krishna Consciousness immediately. Else we’ll never get out of the material entanglement. This material life will soon become too complicated and we won’t be able to get out. We’ll be like silkworms trapped in our own cocoons!”

When Prahlad spoke, the boys would only say, “Let us play, Prahlad! We’re only children. We’re only five years old! We can do Krishna Consciousness when we get older.”

“Yes,” Prahlad would respond, “I know you want to play. But just listen a moment. There’s no need to try hard for sense happiness. That happiness will come without any endeavor, according to whatever body you have. Arrangements are already made by nature and will come on its own as misery comes. But there’s a need to develop an understanding of the dear most thing in life.

“Each of us is looking for his dear most friend. That dear most friend is the Supreme Lord, Krishna. He’s in everyone’s heart and He’ll make us satisfied forever. We can just chant His name, ‘Hare Krishna,’ and we’ll be connected with Him. He’ll dictate us how to reach Him.”

Gradually the boys began to listen. “Where did you get this excellent knowledge from?” they asked. “You’re like us, only five years old and never leave the palace grounds. It’s not possible for you to go and take some instructions outside. Our teachers never taught us this. Where did you learn it?”

The answer was that Prahlad had learnt Krishna Consciousness from the foremost sage of Vedic times, Narada Muni. He had learnt it when he was in the womb of mother. Prahlad’s mother was pregnant at the time of a great war between demigods and demons. The demigods were led by Indra and the demons were led by party of Hiranyakashipu. The victorious demigods eventually entered the cities of the demon king and ransacked his deserted buildings. King Indra himself had entered the palace of Hiranyakashipu, and was taking Prahlad’s mother, the Queen.

Narada appeared and stopped him and said “Do not take her! It is not right, for she is chaste”.

Indra answered, “I’m not doing anything wrong.She is carrying a child within her womb who is Hiranyakashipu’s son. She is therefore carrying a snake, and I just want to keep her in custody until the child is born and we can take him away. I had no other purpose.”

“No,” Narada protested. “She is carrying a great soul within her womb. Don’t try to kill him nor you could kill him, since he is a great devotee.”

Solely on the words of the pure saint Narada, Indra gave up his plan and the queen was allowed to go with the saint to his hermitage. Narada gave her shelter at his ashram. As he was a very great devotee he spoke the spiritual science of Krishna Consciousness to her daily. Prahlad, who had developed within her womb heard all these discussions, and he never forgot.

Actually, every human child attains a confrontation with God just before the time of birth. It is stated in the Srimad Bhagwatam that the process of development within the womb is extremely painful for the child, as he has to live in a cramped position, near gastric fire, stool and urine. Just at the time of birth, conditions become unbearable and he then prays to the Supreme Lord, who is seated within his heart as the Supersoul. The child promises that if the Lord will just get him out of this predicament, he will become a sincere devotee of Godhead and so will never again have to take mortal birth.

Once he is out, however, with the shock of entering into the material world the living entity loses all memory of his promise to God. From the first moment after birth, he is in the hands of nurses, friends and relatives who are themselves under the illusion that the goal of life is sense gratification. They mistake the body to be the self. So the child forgets.

But Prahlad did not forget Krishna. He told his daitya fellows how life is wasted: “Non-believers, just look! How long can you live? at most, 100 years. First 20 years are all spent in playing ball and sporting. During the middle forty years sex is very prominent, and those years are all spent in the pursuit of sex pleasure.

“Sex life begins when one meets a girl and think, ‘She’s nice.’ When there is sex, the root of attachment is made. Then one gets married and have children. One must earn to support family and for all the work one performs, one needs some recognition. So one must labor for that and at the same time serve family so that they can expand in wealth and material happiness. Under such conditions there is no chance of getting out of material, death bound existence. There is no time for finding out Vishnu, God, the dearmost thing in life.

“If we calculate the life span i.e., 20 years in sporting, 40 years in sex life and married life. Then at the end of life, the last 20 years are feeble and invalid. Or, even if a man has good health he remains enamored up to the last moment, playing with his fond grandchildren and making no preparation for spiritual life. So where is the time for Krishna? If a man spends his life in this way, always attracted to the non permanent and forgetful of his real self-interest, the eternal Vishnu within the heart, then at the time of death he will fall back among the struggling, lower species of life and have to take another body as an animal.

“O demon brothers, so we have to take action in this youthful age. Only by freeing ourselves from the material consciousness of life, we can realize who that we are not this body but the eternal spirit soul. Come, put your faith in the authority of Narada, and you can derive the same benefit as I have!”

The news of Prahlad’s preaching ultimately reached Hiranyakashipu. He called his son’s teachers. “What is this Hare Krishna?” he demanded to know. “I understand all the boys are chanting some nonsense about God. What are you teaching to Prahlad?”

The Srimad Bhagwatam states that at this time Hiranyakashipu had come to dominate all the planetary systems by ruthless force. He had gained such great power by performing an excruciating austerity by standing on his toes with his arms upraised and remained in that position uninterrupted for 125 years. Hiranyakashipu frightened the demigods that they had to run to their supreme leader, Lord Brahma, the prime living entity and creator of the material universe.

“What does this man want?” they asked Lord Brahma. “Please go and grant him some boon so that he may be satisfied before he becomes very powerful and cause great disturbances!”

Lord Brahma at once approached Hiranyakashipu and asked his wish. The demon king asked to be made immortal.

“You must ask for something else,” Lord Brahma replied. “I myself am bound sometime to die.”

Thereupon Brahma conferred a boon upon HiranyaKashipu which made him invincible in all the material worlds: he would never be killed by man or beast, nor at night, nor in the daytime. He would never be killed on earth, nor on the sea, nor in the air, nor by any weapon.

With this power conferred upon him, he assumed himself unconquerable. Hiranyakashipu took up the business of dominating the entire universe for his personal pleasure. So great was his might that it is said the demigods would tremble at the mere upraising of his eyebrows.

Prahlad’s teachers, however, had committed no offense before Hiranyakashipu. “Sir,” they explained, “We do not know where your son has learned this Hare Krishna, but he is ruining our whole school! We have only taught mathematics, economics, history and the other subjects. We don’t know where he has got it from. But he’s preaching to the other children every day, whenever he can.”

HiranyaKashipu then called his son before him. The father was a materialist and he wanted his son to get a good education so that the boy would be advanced in the attainment of money and beautiful women. The very name of the demon king indicates this. “Hiranya” means soft bed, and “Kashipu” means gold. These were the basic principles of his life.

The father now made Prahlad sit on his knee and with affection asked his boy, “What is the best thing you have learned from your teachers?”

Prahlad replied honestly to his father. “O foremost of atheists,” he said openly, “I haven’t learned anything good at all from my teachers. But I do know the best thing.”

“Oh? And what is that best thing?”

“I have heard that the best thing is to leave this dark well of material life and to take shelter of Krishna, the Lord.”

This answer caused the break that could not be repaired.The father was a determined atheist, and the son is a firm devotee of Krishna.

“Tell me,” HiranyaKashipu continued. “What is this teaching that you could not learn from our Brahmins? What is this teaching of Krishna?” he demanded.

The boy replied, “My dear atheist father, if I told you you could not know, and so I cannot even bother. If you took courses in it, still you would not understand, because you are too attached to sense gratification.”

Hiranyakashipu became extremely angry and threatened his son, but Prahlad was unflinching. He simply remembered the teaching of Narada, and took shelter in thinking the form of Krishna. To every question and demand of his father, Prahlad answered in terms of love of Krishna.

The father, who was unaccustomed to the slightest hint of insubordination, finally took hold of the boy and personally dragged him outdoors to a nearby cliff. With uncontrollable fury he threw Prahlad into the abyss. However, all-pervading Krishna caught hold of his devotee and saved him from the intended destruction.

Hiranyakashipu’s anger intensified and tried to destroy the life of Prahlad by one or another means. He set a great pot of water boiling and pushed the boy into it, but Prahlad was not hurt. He tried to freeze the boy in a snowstorm and he tried to tear apart by the winds of a hurricane.But Prahlad was in direct spiritual communion with Krishna, and so he was at all times protected by the intervention of his worshipable Lord.

Hiranyakashipu, obsessed, threw his son into a pit of snakes, but they did not harm him. He placed Prahlad under the foot of an elephant, but with his trunk the elephant picked the child up and placed him on his back for a triumphant ride. The fierce king forced Prahlad’s mother to administer poison to the boy in his food, but it would not take effect. In a seething fury of frustration, Hiranyakashipu finally picked the boy up in his own hands and hurled him to the floor, as though to smash him like a rock. Prahlad, in meditation upon Krishna, the Soul of souls, remained unhurt even by this attack.

“Where do you get the supernatural powers from?” Hiranyakashipu screamed, standing over his son.

“From the same place you do,” Prahlad replied mildly. “From God.”

In great anger Hiranyakashipu said “God!? What is God? Where is your God?”

“My God is everywhere,” Prahlad said.

“Everywhere?”HiranyaKashipu drew his sword.

“Yes, everywhere.”

“Is He in this pillar?” HiranyaKashipu cried, pointing with his weapon to a nearby column of marble.

“Yes,” said Prahlad evenly.

Then, the mighty demon drew back his sword and struck a single unimaginable blow at the mute column. Then, just as his sword fell upon it, the pillar burst into a thousand pieces. With a roar that deafened half the cosmos, a most wonderful being jumped from the pillar. This was Lord Nrishingha, a form of God manifesting fear personified. As God is perfect in all things, He was able to answer the dread challenge of Prahlad’s father and it caused a brief but terrible struggle.

Half-lion and half-man in appearance, Nrishingha fell upon Hiranyakashipu, who struck back with all anger. But he was nothing against the boundless might of God. Lord Nrishingha quickly caught him up with His nails and stretched the angry, incredulous demon across his lap, and then tore him apart.

Hiranyakashipu died instantly upon that blood-drenched lap. In this way, as Nrishingha was not a man, and as the time was twilight-neither night nor day and as the king was killed on the lap of the Lord, which was neither sea, air nor land. As he was torn apart by no weapons but the claws of Nrishingha. So none of Brahma’s promises to Hiranyakashipu were broken yet he was vanquished.

Prahlad, unafraid, bowed down and offered his profound obeisances before this form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. “O my Lord,” he prayed, “I know that You have thousands of forms, and that there are as many forms of the Supreme Person as there are species of life in the world.”

In this way Prahlad worshiped the lotus feet of the fierce half-man half-lion appearance of Sri Krishna, from whom everyone emanates. As Nrishingha, He appears as the source of all ferocity, just as in the original form of Radha Krishna He is the source of all Love. To Prahlad, the long hard nails of Lord Nrishingha and His fierce aspect created no terror.

He prayed “The rays from Your lotus feet are more soothing than 10,000 autumnal moons. But I truly fear from the reaction of birth and death in this world, which is whirlpool of bad things. I do not fear Your nails, O Lord and Protector! But I fear this world of karma, where the remedies we seek for our ills are worse than the ills themselves. Only by taking shelter of You, we become fearless and satisfied.”

The Lord was very pleased and He requested that His devotee ask for his heart’s desire.

Prahlad replied, “Don’t ask me to take anything, my Lord. Worship is my duty. If I should take something in return, then I have become a merchant.”

But the Lord again asked Prahlad to seek a boon. Prahlad, as a devotee, had no personal desire, now he thought of his father. So he prayed that his father might be pardoned for his offenses and grant liberation. The Lord assured the child Prahlad that not only would his father be liberated from the hellish conditions of life in the material world, but many generations of his family, both in the past and in the future, would be granted liberation. Such is the purifying influence of a pure devotee in a family.

Just to hear the narration of Prahlad’s activities is auspicious as he fixed his mind on the Lord in remembrance. Thus we can derive that full, eternal, blissful freedom from evil which the Lord promises mankind in the Bhagavad Gita as:

“Give up all varieties of religiousness, and just surrender unto Me; and in return I shall protect you from all sinful reactions. Therefore, you have nothing to fear.” (BG 18.66)