During the Narasimha Jayanti festival at Varadaraja Temple
at Melattur near Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, the famous Prahlada Natakam is
enacted which is based on the story of the Narasimha Avatar of Vishnu.
Prahlada Natakam was written by Venkatarama Shastriar during
the 19th century.
The Varadaraja Temple at Melattur has a murti dedicated to
Narasimha.
The temple also has an awe-inspiring mask of Narasimha,
which the actor who plays the role of Narasimha incarnation wears every year.
It is believed that the actor enters into a kind of spiritual
trance whiling enacting the drama.