The reason for the man-lion's coming is the demon's son Prahlada, a boy who is a perfect devotee of Vishnu despite, and against, his father, whose attempts to kill his own son for that devotion all fail (fire will not burn him, poison will not harm him). When Hiranyakashipu, taunting, demands to know whether Prahlada's god is present even in a pillar, Narasimha bursts from the pillar to destroy him, so the story is at heart about the protection of bhakti, loving faith.
Narasimha is worshipped with special intensity in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, his hill-shrines at Ahobilam and Simhachalam being major centres, and images of him tearing the demon are among the most vehement in all Indian art. A gentler form, Yoga-Narasimha, shows the same god seated in serene meditation, holding the two faces of the deity together. The Ahobilam temple complex, where nine distinct shrines called the Nava Narasimha are spread across roughly five kilometres of hill country in Andhra Pradesh, is maintained by the Ahobila Matha, a Sri Vaishnava monastic institution tradition places in the fourteenth century within the theological lineage descending from the eleventh century philosopher Ramanuja, making the site as much a centre of ongoing Vaishnava scholarship and monastic authority as of pilgrimage to the god's most vehement form.