Mahabharata - Story of Parashurama

Parashurama

Once upon a time there was a mighty king of the Haihaya tribe called Arjuna, son of Kartavirya, who by the grace of the celestial sage Dattatreya, possessed enormous power. He had thousand arms and also had a car of gold which could travel anywhere. Mounting on that car he could travel to all the worlds and terrorize humans, Yakhshas, devas, Gandarbhas and other species alike. The celestials and saints then met with Vishnu and told Him about their woes and requested Him to be born on earth to kill Arjuna. Vishnu then went to Badari for performing severe penance with a mission to destroy Arjuna and other mighty kshatriya warriors who had been terrorizing the earth and had become a burden to her.

At the same time there used to rule a powerful monarch in Kanyakubja called Gadhi, son of Kushika, who went to forest for leading a contemplative life. He had a beautiful daughter. The sage Richika, son of Bhrigu, was enchanted by her beauty and sought her hand in marriage from Gadhi, who imposed on him a severe condition. He told Richika that he would gave his daughter in marriage to him only if he is able to fulfill a family custom of providing suitable gift as requested by the bride’s father. When Richika agreed, Gadhi asked for a thousand brown steeds which could travel very fast, each with one black ear. Richika readily agreed and he went to Varuna, the Lord of the waters and demanded the steeds. Varuna gave him the horses which issued from Ganga and hence that place from where the horses originated was named as the “landing place of horses”. Richika returned to king Gadhi with the horses and Gadhi could no longer refuse him. So Satyavati, the daughter of Gadhi was given in marriage to Richika in the city of Kanyakubja. When the marriage was over the great sage Bhrigu himself came to visit his son and daughter in law and they reverentially served him. Bhrigu was satisfied and he asked his daughter in law for boons. Satyavati asked for a son for herself and also for her mother. Bhrigu then told Satyavati that she and her mother would partake two bowls of milk and rice preparation with special herbs that were collected by him painstakingly from various parts of the world, one meant for Satyavati and the other meant for her mother and would embrace a fig and a peepal tree resp. Saying thus, he went away. When Satyavati told his mother about the boon, she thought that probably Bhrigu would bestow some special grace upon her daughter in law and therefore she ought to exchange her gift with her daughter to get the best. She therefore told her daughter to take her share of the rice and milk and in exchange give her own share and also she embraced the tree meant for her daughter. Bhrigu came to know of all these through his Yogic powers and he came and told Satyavati that she had committed an error by not listening to him and by exchanging the gifts. Her mother had tricked her in doing so. He had so ordained that a powerful Kshatriya would born of her mother while a wise Brahmin would be born of her. But now her son would be a mighty warrior while her mother’s son, though a Kshatriya, would ultimately take after the Brahmins and become a wise and learned sage. At this Satyavati was very sorry and humbly begged that her son be born as a Brahmin but her grandson should become a warrior. Bhrigu said, “So be it” and left.

In due course of time a son was born to Satyavati who was named as Jamadgni. The sage became well versed in Vedas and learnt also the art of warfare from Sun himself and in knowledge and wisdom he was unrivalled. When he grew up he sought marriage with Renuka, the daughter of king Prasenjit. Together they lived in a hermitage and the sage devoted much of his time in penance and contemplation. The couple had four sons and the fifth one born to them was the mighty Rama, who later came to be known as Parashu Rama or the axe wielding Rama.

The Rama was also well versed in scriptures and very devoted to his esteemed father Jamadgani. Once Renuka had by mistake looked at a king called Chitraratha and Jamadagni became very indignant at this act and asked his sons to kill her for the offense as she, by casting a glance at another person, had forsaken chastity, the highest virtue demanded of women. The four elder brothers of Parashurama declined to do such a heinous crime, whereupon they were cursed by the sage to become devoid of intelligence. He then asked his youngest son to do the same, who at once, on his father’s bidding, took his axe and severed the head of his mother. Jamadagni was very pleased by this act and he asked Rama for any boon. Rama, taking up this opportunity, begged for the life of his mother and also asked that she should not remember this crime of her son and he should not incur any sin from this. Also his brothers should get back their intelligence and that Parashurama should get a very long life and become invincible in battle. Jamadagni gladly granted all the boons by the power of his enormous ascetic practices. Rama thus became very mighty and powerful and gladly served his parents.

One day Kartviryarjuna accompanied by his sons came to the hermitage. Jamadagni and his sons were not there but Renuka was theme backre. She treated the guests with utmost respect and gave them delicious fruits and other edibles. However Kartaviryarjuna was not happy. In his anger he saw the cow that was the source of all ashrama food and dragged it along with him, disregarding the pleas of the ashramites. When Rama came back and heard about the incident from Jamadagni, he was extremely angry and set out with his weapons. He met Kartaviryarjuna and challenged him on a battle. His arrows first cut down all the hands of the King and later he killed Kartaviryarjuna. At this, the king’s sons were extremely angry and sought revenge. They came to the ashrama to find Jamadagni meditating and killed him. At the time of death Jamadagni had piteously cried for Rama who was away. When Rama came back and saw his father’s dead body and performed his last rites with a heavy heart. Then he set out with his axe to extract revenge. He vowed to exterminate the Kshatriyas beginning with the sons of Kartaviryarjuna. He killed them mercilessly, as well as all their followers. He then set to eliminate all the Kshatriya tribes of the world and he did it twenty one times. Nobody was spared, not even the child. With the blood of the massacre five lakes were formed and the region came to be known as Samanta Panchaka. He then offered libations in that lake of blood to the Pitrs or the departed souls of his forefathers of the Bhrgu clan and Richika appeared to him in a vision and gave him some wise counsel. They told him that it is not fit for a Brahmin to display anger and destroy world in the fit of anger. Whatever he had done was good for the world. By destroying the evil Kshatriyas he had reduced the burden of the world. But innocents should not be killed for the sin of others. Now he should give up the wrath and concentrate on tapasya. Parashurama then conducted a sacrifice and gratified the gods and gave away the earth to sage Kasyapa. He then distributed all the riches to the Brahmins and retired to Mahendra Hill for doing penance in solitude.

There are later stories of Parashurama in Mahabharata and Ramayana. He encountered Rama when the latter was returning from Mithila to Ayodhya along with Dasaradha and Sita. Parashurama challenged Rama and was severely chastised and humiliated by him. 

Parashurama also challenged Bhisma to a battle when the daughter of Kashiraja, Amba approached him for punishing Bhishma for forcefully abducting her. However he could not defeat Bhishma and hence gave up the battle. He distributed all his weapons and other riches to Brahmins and Drona got the weapons and also their secrets from him. When Karna went to learn deceitfully the science of weapons from him, in the guise of a Brahmin, he taught him. However when he came to know that Karna was actually a Kshatriya, he cursed Karna saying that when in the battle Karna would need most the help of these weapons, he would forget them, because of learning them through deceit. In some Puranas Parashurama is depicted to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.