Vishnumoorthi

Narasimha, the man-lion avatar of Vishnu, tearing Hiranyakashipu apart in a spectacular, athletic performance.

Vishnumoorthi is the most widely performed Vaishnava Theyyam. The climax is the enactment of Narasimha bursting out of a pillar to kill the demon-king Hiranyakashipu, performed on a raised platform with great physical force. In the Ottakkolam variant the performer repeatedly leaps into a heap of burning wood (meleri). Vishnumoorthi temples are found all over North Malabar.

The legend

Palanthayi Kannan, a Thiyya youth of Neeleswaram, was driven out by the local Nair chieftain and fled to Mangalore, where he became a devotee of Vishnu. Returning years later he was murdered by the chieftain's men. Vishnu, enraged, appeared as Narasimha and destroyed the chieftain's household; Kannan was deified as Vishnumoorthi.