Kamban in his Ramayana elaborates on the Narasimha avatara, something Valmiki did not do. When Hiranyakasipu asks Prahlada where Hari resides, Prahlada answers him. This answer that Kamban gives through Prahlada’s words is full of meaning, said M.A. Venkatakrishnan in a discourse. Prahlada says, “If you split an atom into a hundred pieces, then He is in each of them. He is Mount Meru. He is in this pillar. He is in your words too.”
There are many verses in the Divya Prabandham describing the Narasimha avatara. In one verse, Periyazhvar uses words that yield significant meanings. While talking of the pillar which Hiranyakasipu struck, and from which Narasimha emerged, Periyazhvar says, “aLanditta thUN”. He is indicating that this pillar (thUN) was measured by Hiranyakasipu. Many were Hiranyakasipu’s conquests, and this was his pillar of victory. He had proudly supervised its construction. He had ensured that it was huge, matching his huge size. Had the Lord come out of some other pillar, the demon might have argued that Narasimha had hidden inside the pillar and that the pillar had been built around Him. But he would have no doubts about any tricks where the pillar of victory was concerned, because it had been built under his watchful eyes. In his Thiruvallikeni pasuram, Thirumangai Azhvar describes a scenario, which we witness even in our families every day — a child coming home from school, and a parent asking him what he has learnt. Prahlada comes home after lessons and his father asks him what he learnt that day. But Hiranyakasipu does not find his son’s words pleasing. The child recited the Lord’s thousand names, ‘ayira naamam’, says Periyazhvar. Thus, even before Bhishma, we have an example of the Lord’s 1000 names being recited.
