[paragraph continues] "Vishnu Purana" allude to the death of Hiranyakasipu. After speaking of the reconciliation between the father and son, without any intimation of further dispute, it goes on to say: "After his father had been put to death by Vishnu in the form of the man-lion, Prahlada became the sovereign of the daityas." In the Bhagavat we are told that Prahlada had said that Vishnu was in him, in his father; in fact, was everywhere. "Hiranyakasipu says, 'Why, if Vishnu is everywhere, is he not visible in this pillar?' Being told that Vishnu, though unseen, was really present there, he struck the pillar, saying, Then I will kill him.' Immediately Vishnu, in the form of a being half-man and half-lion, came forth from the pillar, laid hold of Hiranyakasipu by the thighs with his teeth, and tore him up the middle. Brahma's boon to this daitya king, as a reward of his religious observances, was that no common animal should destroy him, that he should die neither in the day nor night, in earth or in heaven, by fire, by water, or by the sword. This promise was kept in the letter, for it was evening when Vishnu slew him; this is neither day nor night. It was done under the droppings of the thatch, and this, according to a Hindu proverb, is out of the earth, and he was not killed by a man or an ordinary animal."

Footnotes

^150:* Page 126 ff.

5. THE VAMANA OR DWARF AVATARA.

The four Avataras that have already been described are said to have occurred in the Satya-yuga, or age of Truth, corresponding with the golden age of classic writers; it was in the Treta-yuga, or second age, that this incarnation is supposed to have occurred. It is

not easy to see how this belief could be formed; for if the story of Prahlada be regarded as a true picture of the Satya-yuga, it was not very far superior to the present, the last and worst of all.

This incarnation was undertaken to recover heaven for the gods. Bali, a demon, grandson of Prahlada whose story has just been given, was king over the three worlds--heaven, earth and sky. In the form of a Brahman dwarf, Vishnu appears, and asks, as a gift, all he could cross over in three steps. This the king grants. Immediately the pigmy becomes a giant, and with one step strides over heaven, and with the second over the earth, and thus fulfils his purpose. The "Skanda Purana" [**] gives the following legend as the reason of this incarnation.