Bhaktha Prahlada

Narayana Sastry was a painter who eked out a living by painting sign boards and posters for drama companies which were the main purveyors of entertainment in 1930 and 40s before the advent of the talkies. He narrated this incident.

A small-time drama troupe was enacting plays on a contract basis at a religious fair. The contractor was to pay a share of the collection to the artists, He had reneged and not paid the dues. The players decided to teach him a lesson. The play,“Bhaktha Prahlada”, was to be enacted. It was the last scene where child Prahlada is asked to show god Narayana in one of the pillars on the stage. An actor had been duly made up with a mask of a lion and made to sit behind a pillar. The climax was to follow. The demon Haranyakashipu struck at every pillar except the one where the lion-faced sat. Time passed, the audience booed and whistled; pandemonium was about to set in. The contractor relented and paid the dues to the Manager. The demon struck at the right pillar and the show ended with a cheering crowd greeting the man-beast incarnation of the Lord on whom flowers were showered from the top to the accompaniment of loud music.