naraharyaṣṭakam

Eight verses by Vādirāja Tīrtha, the Mādhva teacher, who signs the closing verse. It is built as a series of commands rather than requests, and the imperative is always the same verb — hara, destroy — placed so that it rhymes against the god's own name, Hare and Narahare, at the end of nearly every line. The descriptions are correspondingly violent and precisely observed: the roaring mane, the knotted brows and the hard curved glance; the ears thrown back and the mouth opened wide; the chest blazing like a crest of flame and the cruel spread of the claws; the fangs terrible and the tongue flickering; the whole net of the worlds inside his belly and ten million weapons raised in his hands. The final verse states its own purpose plainly: whoever reads this newly made Narahari Aṣṭaka destroys his enemies in a moment by Nṛsiṃha's grace.