Paraśurāma Avatāra (Narasiṃha Purāṇa)
In Chapter 46, the Narasiṃha Purāṇa tells of the Paraśurāma avatāra (descent) of Bhagavān Vishṇu. King Kārtavīryārjuna wants the divine cow Kāmadhenu that belongs to Jamadagni Maharshi, and his minister takes her by force. Paraśurāma slays the king. The king’s sons then kill Jamadagni, and Paraśurāma takes a terrible vow against the adharmic kshatriyas. He keeps it twenty-one times and gives the whole earth to Kaśyapa Maharshi.
Kārtavīryārjuna visits Jamadagni
Jamadagni Maharshi was the son of Ṛcīka and Satyavatī and the father of Paraśurāma. He lived with his family in an āśrama in the forest. He had the divine Kāmadhenu, the wish-fulfilling cow, who could give any food, welcome or supply that was needed.
King Kārtavīryārjuna, the son of Kṛtavīrya, came to visit the āśrama of Jamadagni. He is also called Sahasrābāhu, he who has a thousand arms. Kāmadhenu gave a rich feast to all the king’s followers. Kārtavīryārjuna was amazed at the wonderful power of the cow and wished to have her in his own treasury.
The theft of Kāmadhenu
Kārtavīryārjuna went back to his kingdom, but his wish for Kāmadhenu did not leave him. He sent his minister back to the āśrama of Jamadagni with orders to take the cow by force. The minister came to the āśrama when Jamadagni was away. He seized Kāmadhenu and her calf by force and left.
When Paraśurāma came back to the āśrama, he learned of the theft. Without delay he took up his weapons and went after Kārtavīryārjuna.
Kārtavīryārjuna is slain
In the battle that followed, the divine weapons and matchless skill of Paraśurāma proved greater even than the thousand arms of Kārtavīryārjuna. Paraśurāma slew Kārtavīryārjuna, won back Kāmadhenu and brought her back to the āśrama.
The murder of Jamadagni and the grief of Reṇukā
The sons of Kārtavīryārjuna heard of their father’s death. They burned with anger and the wish for revenge. They used the time when Paraśurāma was away from the āśrama. They came to the āśrama of Jamadagni and killed the ṛshi while he sat in prayer. This was an act of the deepest adharma: the killing of a helpless brāhmaṇa ṛshi in his own āśrama.
Reṇukā, the mother of Paraśurāma, was overcome with grief. In her sorrow she struck her own chest with her palms twenty-one times. Each blow showed a grief too deep for words. When Paraśurāma came back and found his father murdered, the sight of his mother’s grief and the twenty-one blows she had struck stirred him to a terrible resolve.
The twenty-one campaigns: the earth cleared of kshatriyas
Paraśurāma vowed to cleanse the earth of the adharmic kshatriyas. He would answer his mother’s twenty-one blows with twenty-one full campaigns. He took up the divine paraśu (battle-axe) and made war on the kshatriya lines of the earth. Twenty-one times he swept across the four quarters. He killed the adharmic kings and their armies, and each campaign finished one round of cleansing the earth. Between the campaigns he performed great horse yajñas and gave the fruit of them to the ṛshis and brāhmaṇas.
The Narasiṃha Purāṇa presents this not as wild killing but as the setting right of dharma. It is the work of an avatāra, to remove the kshatriyas who had grown proud and cruel, who broke the limits of dharma by attacking ṛshis and stealing sacred property.
The earth given to Kaśyapa
When his work was done, Paraśurāma gave the whole cleansed earth as dakshiṇā (a gift to the priest) to Kaśyapa Maharshi. It was a gift of matchless generosity, and it made the brāhmaṇas the keepers of dharma on earth. Having given the earth away, Paraśurāma lived from then on at Mahendra Parvata. There he did tapas (austerity) as a brāhmaṇa-warrior, in constant meditation.
Sources
- Narasiṃha Purāṇa, Chapter 46