Ellora Hindu Cave 15 Admits a Lion, a Name and Demon King Hiranyakasipu

Summary: Ellora Hindu Cave 15 in Maharashtra, India, alludes to lion avatar Narasimha of preserver god Vishnu, the name Dashavatara and the demon King Hiranyakasipu.

episode of Narasimha (Vishnu's lion avatar) and King Hiranyakasipu as depicted in Ellora Hindu Cave 15; Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009, 09:50: Prithwiraj Dhang, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Ellora Hindu Cave 15 in Maharashtra state, western peninsular India, answers to the name Dashavatara, the lion avatar Narasimha of preserver god Vishnu and the demon King Hiranyakasipu, himself a demon avatar.

Ellora Hindu Cave 15, like its north-bordering neighbor Ellora Hindu Cave 16, belongs among Ellora Caves with monikers. It carries the nickname Dashavatara (from Sanskrit दशन्, "ten" and अवतारा, "sky-descended") and contains colonial sculptures in deep, side-wall, sunken panels on its second, topmost level. Perhaps its most dazzling depiction deals with the death of the rakshasa (from Sanskrit राक्षस, "demoniacal") demon King Hiranyakasipu (from Sanskrit हिरण्य, "gold" and कशिपु, "mat").

Perhaps Vaishnavite Hindu (from Sanskrit विष्णु, "all-pervasive" and सिन्धु, "stream") itinerant artisans, merchants and monks erected Ellora Hindu Cave 15 to the Hindu preserver god Vishnu.

Kings Hiranyakasipu in Ellora Hindu Cave 15 and Ravana (from Sanskrit रवण, "roaring") in Ellora Hindu Cave 14 function as demon avatars (from Sanskrit अवतारा, "sky-descended").

Hindu creator god Brahma (from Sanskrit ब्रह्म, "priest") gave King Hiranyakasipu immunity from beasts, gods and men day and night, inside and outside the latter's palace. Hiranyakasipu, rakshasa demon leader's demon avatar, had his Vaishnavite son Prahlada (from Sanskrit प्रह्लाद, "pleasure") bitten by serpents, cornered by elephants, drowned and thrown over precipices. Vishnu incarnated himself as lion avatar Narasimha (from Sanskrit नारसिंह, "man-lion") to inflict death by tearing to pieces Hiranyakasipu, not immune evenings from men-lions in doorways.

Ellora Hindu Cave 15 juggles the moniker Cave of 10 Avatars for Vishnu journeying through fish, tortoise, boar, man-lion, dwarf, forester, prince, cowherd, Buddha, horse incarnations.

The 40,000,000-mile- (64,373,760-kilometer-) long fish Matsya (from Sanskrit मत्स्य, "fish") kept worldwide flooding from keeling over humankind's progenitor and sage Vaishvanara's (from Sanskrit वैश्वानर, "universal") ship.

Kurma (from Sanskrit कूर्म, "tortoise") and Mount Mandara (from Sanskrit मंदर, "coral-tree [Erythrina fulgens]") lathered back the milky ocean's lost creamy amrita (from Sanskrit अमृत, "immortal"). The 40-mile- (64.38-kilometer-) wide, 4,000-mile- (6.437.37-kilometer-) long, lightning-eyed, lion-mighted, mountain-sized, thunder-voiced, white-tusked boar Varaha (from Sanskrit वराह, "boar") massacred Hiranyakasipu's brother Hiranyaksha (from Sanskrit हिरण्याक्ष, "golden-eyed"). He again nestled Earth onto surface waters and Vedic (from Sanskrit वेड, "knowledge") hymns among gods and men from Hiranyaksha's nabbing for niches under the waters.

Earth and heavens occur outside Prahlada's grandson Daitya Bali's (from Sanskrit दैत्य, "liquor" and बलि, "offering") kingdom, thanks to the dwarf Vamana (from Sanskrit वमन, "vomiting").

Kshatriya (from Sanskrit क्षत्रिय, "gentle people's defender") caste men perished, for persecuting Brahmins (from Sanskrit ब्रह्मन्, "expansion"), from forester Parashurama's (from Sanskrit परशुराम, "axe-delighting") 21 campaigns.

Prince Ramachandra (from Sanskrit रम, "pleasing" and चन्द्र, "glittering") qualifies as King Ravana's killer through the fire-headed, mountain-like, sun-headed, wind-winged Brahma (from Sanskrit ब्रह्म, "priest") weapon. Cowherd Krishna (from Sanskrit कृष्ण, "black-blue") routed Kama (from Sanskrit कमा, "beauty"), demon Drumalika's and Mathuran Queen Pavanarekha's (from Sanskrit पवन, "pure" and रेखा, "line") son. Buddha (from Sanskrit बुद्ध, "awakened") supposedly symbolizes cyclical creation and cyclical anti-spiritual, aspiritual destruction stages by subverting caste duties, heaven and hell, sacrifices and universal spirit.

Vishnu on tenth, upcoming, white horse Kalki (from Sanskrit कल्कि, "doughy") avatar in Ellora Hindu Cave 15 trades today's terminally destructive timespan for tomorrow's tolerant timeline.

entrance to Ellora Hindu Cave 15; 2002: G41m8, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

episode of Narasimha (Vishnu's lion avatar) and King Hiranyakasipu as depicted in Ellora Hindu Cave 15; Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009, 09:50: Prithwiraj Dhang, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellora_Cave_15.JPG

entrance to Ellora Hindu Cave 15; 2002: G41m8, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellora_Cave_15_si0257.jpg

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