51 Lesser Known Tales From the Mahabharata (Mahabharata Companion, #1)

by Sharath Komarraju

The tale of the Varaha Avatar is connected to one of the earlier stories in this collection about Jaya and Vijaya. In their very first incarnation, Jaya becomes Hiranyaksha, the demon who has a boon of being indestructible against a variety of human, god-like and animal enemies. It so happens that Hiranyaksha had not thought of including a boar in his list of animals, so Vishnu takes that form to kill him. (Notice that this is similar to the boon Hiranyakashyapu – Hiranyaksha’s brother, whom Vishnu kills in his next avatar – has. In that tale, Hiranyakashyapu asks for a boon that makes him indestructible to both animals and human beings. He cannot be killed either indoors or outdoors, either during the day or during the night. So Narasimha takes the form of half-lion, half-man, carries Hiranyakashyapu to the doorway of the main door of the palace to kill him, and does so in the evening, just as the sun sets, before night arrives.)