Story

One of the ten celebrated incarnations  of Vishnu. Narasimha is a widely worshiped deity in the northern as well as the southern parts of India.

While  in the north he is worshipped in several   Vishnu  shrines , independent temples to him are more frequently  to be seen in south  India than in north however , ritual of worship in the celebrated temple art puri jaggannath  in Orissa  identifies  the god here is narsimha .

The reason for this incarnation given in the  puranas are is to save the  world from the disastrous hold of the demon hiranykashipu , son of the kashyp prajapati and Diti , and more especially  to protect pralhada , the devout son of the demon  hiranykashipu brother  hiranyksha  was killed by  Vishnu in his warah incarnation & hiranykashipu had therefore  nurtured  hatred.

For  Vishnu  when his son pralhad  grew up  Vishnu , the demon naturally threatened  his son and subjected  him to all kinds of terrible  punishments .But  Pralhada  was unanswering  in his  devotion  to Vishnu  had to appear  in order to protect  this  young lad. Hiranykashipu  however had performed penance  and obtained from Brahma  the boon  that he could not be killed  by god ,man  or beast by  any weapon  known to man ,during  day or night inside his palace  or outside it .Therefore ,Vishnu  had to appear as  man beast  and ( manlion , nara simha )  and tear there  demons  entrails  with his claws  during dusk  and seated upon the   

 Threshold   of the  palace.

The Nrisimha Gayatris

Om Nrisimhaye vidmahe 
vajranakhaya dhimahi 
tan no simhah prachodayat

Vajra nakhaya vidmahe 
tikshna damstraya dhimahi 
tan no narasimhah prachodayat

Runa Vimochana Narasimha Stotram

Devata karya sidhyartham, sabhasthambha samudbhavam,
Sri nrisimham mahaveeram namami runa mukthaye. 1

Lakshmya aalingitha vamangam, bhakthanaam vara dayakam,
Sri nrisimham mahaveeram namami runa mukthaye. 2

Aantramaladaram, sankha chakrabja aayudarinim,
Sri nrisimham mahaveeram namami runa mukthaye. 3

Smaranath sarva papagnam, khadruja visha nasanam,
Sri nrisimham mahaveeram namami runa mukthaye. 4

Simhanadenamahatha, digdanthi bhayanasanam,
Sri nrisimham mahaveeram namami runa mukthaye. 5

Prahlada varadam, srisam, daithyeswara vidharanam,
Sri nrisimham mahaveeram namami runa mukthaye. 6

Kroora grahaih peedithanam bhakthanam abhaya pradham,
Sri nrisimham mahaveeram namami runa mukthaye. 7

Veda vedantha yajnesam, brahma rudradhi vandhitham,
Sri nrisimham mahaveeram namami runa mukthaye. 8

Ya idam pathathe nithyam, runa mochana samjnitham
Anrni jayathe sadyo, danam sigramavapnuyath