Reṇukā and Kārtavīrya Arjuna

Reṇukā was the wife of the ṛshi Jamadagni. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa tells how King Kārtavīrya Arjuna came to Jamadagni’s āśrama, how he wanted the divine cow Kāmadhenu, and how Jamadagni was killed. It tells how Bhṛgu brought Jamadagni back to life, and how Reṇukā’s grief led her son Paraśurāma to a terrible vow.

Reṇukā, wife of Jamadagni

Reṇukā was a princess of royal birth who became the wife of the great ṛshi Jamadagni. She was pure in conduct and devoted to her husband. She gave herself fully to the daily life of the āśrama. With Jamadagni she raised five sons, and the youngest was Paraśurāma. Her life in the āśrama was a life of calm spiritual practice, of sevā (service) to the ṛshis who came as guests, and of the daily rites of a brāhmaṇa household.

Kāmadhenu, the divine cow

Jamadagni’s āśrama had Kāmadhenu, the divine cow who fulfils every wish. She had come down into the world of mortals and had placed herself in the care of the Bhṛgu line. She gave food, clothing and every need in unlimited amounts. When guests came, whether one ṛshi or a whole army, her milk and her divine power to bring forth things could feed them all without running low. It was this great power that brought trouble to the āśrama.

Kārtavīrya Arjuna’s visit

Kārtavīrya Arjuna was the thousand-armed king of the Haihaya dynasty. He had received from Dattātreya a vara (a boon) of a thousand arms, of being unbeaten in battle, and of power over the three worlds. He came to the region of Mahendra-parvata with his great army on a hunting trip. He heard of the āśrama of the great Jamadagni and went to see it.

Jamadagni welcomed him with all the honour due to a king. He at once asked Kāmadhenu to prepare a feast for the whole army. The divine cow did so. She brought forth food of the finest kind for tens of thousands of soldiers, horses and elephants, as if it cost her no effort.

Kārtavīrya Arjuna saw this and was filled with desire. He thought that he was a king with the largest army in the world, yet nothing in his treasury could equal this one cow. He asked Jamadagni to give him Kāmadhenu.

Jamadagni’s refusal

Jamadagni refused, calmly and firmly. He explained that Kāmadhenu was not his own property, to give or to keep. She was a divine being who had chosen to live in his āśrama, and her gifts were open to all. To take her out of the āśrama by force would be a grave adharma. It would break the holiness of the āśrama and the divine order that kept her there.

Kārtavīrya Arjuna was used to having his will obeyed by all beings in the three worlds because of his varas. He was not satisfied. A king who believed that everything in his kingdom was his by right stood against a brāhmaṇa ṛshi who accepted no such royal claim. Neither side could give way.

The attack and the killing of Jamadagni

The quarrel grew into violence. Kārtavīrya Arjuna’s forces moved against the āśrama. Jamadagni was a brāhmaṇa ṛshi with no army and no weapons, and he could not stand against a king who had set dharma aside. In the fighting, Jamadagni was killed inside the āśrama itself.

Reṇukā’s grief was beyond measure. She beat her breast and cried out in sorrow over her husband’s body. She struck her breast twenty-one times. The Purāṇa keeps this number, and it became the measure of Paraśurāma’s vow.

Paraśurāma’s return and revenge

Paraśurāma came back to the āśrama and found his father dead and his mother in grief. He did not stop to think. He took up his paraśu (axe) and the other weapons that Bhagavān Śiva had given him, and went to fight Kārtavīrya Arjuna. In the fierce battle Paraśurāma cut off all thousand arms of Kārtavīrya Arjuna and killed him.

Bhṛgu revives Jamadagni

After Kārtavīrya Arjuna was killed, the great ṛshi Bhṛgu came to the āśrama. He was the father of the line and Paraśurāma’s grandfather in the family. By the power of his tapas he brought Jamadagni back to life. This revival was wonderful, but it did not wipe away the wound of the first violence. The Purāṇa keeps Jamadagni’s thoughts after his revival. They were about the nature of adharma, the limits of non-violence, and the need to protect others.

The second attack and the vow of twenty-one

The kshatriya kinsmen of Kārtavīrya Arjuna wanted revenge. They came again to the āśrama, and Jamadagni was attacked once more.

This second attack on the āśrama showed Paraśurāma that the trouble was not one king alone. It was the whole kshatriya order as it had become in that age. It had lost its footing in dharma and had become a force of oppression that devoured the earth instead of guarding it.

In answer to his mother’s twenty-one cries of grief, Paraśurāma made a vow. He would destroy the kshatriya race on earth twenty-one times, so that no fallen kshatriya power would be left to threaten the brāhmaṇas and the āśramas of the ṛshis. He carried out this vow in full. He filled the five lakes of Samantapañcaka with the blood of slain kings.

Sources

• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapters 26–30