Kayadhu

Kayadhu looks reverently as Narasimha tears her husband apart. Detail of a miniature from the Bhagavata Purana (c. 1760–1770, Los Angeles County Museum of Art )

Kayadhu ( Sanskrit कयाधु kayādhu f.) Is the wife of the demon king Hiranyakashipu in Indian mythology . She is the daughter of Jambha of the Danavas clan . She bore four sons to Hiranyakashipu, namely Samhlada , Anuhlada , Hlada and Prahlada . The Bhagavata Purana According she was also the mother of Sinhika , the mother of Rahu .

The Purana goes on to say that at a time when Hiranyakashipu was devoting himself to the rigorous penances through which he acquired his extraordinary powers, his realm was conquered by the gods and demigods under Indra's leadership. The palace was ransacked and Kayadhu, pregnant with Prahladi, was to be dragged away and Indra's prisoner to remain until the child was born. The Demon King's son should then be killed. But then the great Rishi Narada intervened. He pointed out to Indra that the unborn child would be a mahā-bhāgavata , a great among the vaiṣṇava , that is, a perfect devotee of the god Vishnu and that it would be impossible for him, Indra, to harm the child in any way.

Indra then abandoned his plan and left Kayadhu to the care of Narada, who wanted to stay in his ashram until the child was born and her husband returned. While staying at the Ashram, Narada taught the mother the teachings of wisdom. But the unborn child also shared the teachings in the womb. Hence it came about that the boy Prahlada was trained from birth in the wisdom teachings and the instruction he received at the demon school, where they wanted to train him in all the lusts and vices of the world, had no effect, so that in the Eyes of the father's degenerate son was cast out by him. This then led to the death of Hiranyakashipu, because when Hiranyakashipu tried again and again to murder the son, Vishnu finally intervened in the form of the Man-Lion- Avatar Narasimha and tore the demon king to pieces on the threshold of his house.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ kayādhu . In: Monier Monier-Williams : Sanskrit-English Dictionary . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1899, p. 253, col. 1 .
2. ^ Bhagavata Purana VI, 18: 12-13
3. ↑ Bhagavata Purana VII, from 7.6 to 16
4. ↑ Bhagavata Purana VII, 5-8