Paraśurāma and Kārtavīrya: The Twenty-One Rounds

This is the account of how King Kārtavīrya Arjuna took the divine cow of the ṛshi Jamadagni, how Jamadagni’s son Paraśurāma killed him, and how Paraśurāma then took a terrible vow against the kshatriyas. The Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata gives it in Chapters 114 to 117. Lomaśa tells it to Yudhishṭhira as they visit the tīrthas (holy places). The Aśvamedhika Parva gives a second telling of the same conflict.

In short: Kārtavīrya, who had a thousand arms, took Jamadagni’s wish-granting cow by force. Paraśurāma, an avatāra of Bhagavān Vishṇu, killed him. Kārtavīrya’s sons then killed Jamadagni, and Paraśurāma vowed to end the kshatriya race on earth twenty-one times. He kept his vow, and the blood filled five lakes at Samantapañchaka.

Kārtavīrya’s gifts from Dattātreya

King Kārtavīrya Arjuna, also called Sahasrabāhu (“the one of a thousand arms”), ruled the kingdom of Māhishmatī on the bank of the Narmadā. He was a king of great might, and no one in his time questioned his rule. Wanting still more power, he pleased the divine ṛshi Dattātreya, who is himself a portion of the Supreme. Dattātreya was pleased and gave him varas (boons): a thousand arms, the power to rule with perfect justice, conquest of the earth, and that he could be killed only by one greater than himself. (Vana Parva, Chapter 114)

With these gifts Kārtavīrya became the highest king of his age. He conquered all the earth and ruled for a long time with justice, until pride took hold of him.

The theft of Jamadagni’s cow

The ṛshi Jamadagni, son of Ṛcīka and father of Paraśurāma, lived in his āśrama in the forest with his wife Renukā and his sons. He had the divine cow Surabhi, the kāmadhenu, who could bring forth whatever was wished for: food of every kind, divine things, and wealth without limit.

Kārtavīrya Arjuna came to the āśrama while out hunting, and Jamadagni welcomed him with a splendid meal, all of it given by the divine cow. The king was amazed and delighted by the feast. (Vana Parva, Chapter 115)

Then Kārtavīrya decided that he must have the cow. He felt that such a cow belonged to a king and not to a forest ṛshi. Jamadagni refused, gently but firmly. Kārtavīrya had his soldiers seize the cow by force and carry her off, and he took no notice of the ṛshi’s protest.

Paraśurāma kills Kārtavīrya

Paraśurāma had been away from the āśrama at the time of the theft. When he came back and learned what had happened, he was filled with just anger. He took up his paraśu (battle-axe), which Bhagavān Śiva himself had given him, and went after Kārtavīrya’s army. He caught up with Kārtavīrya, and a great battle followed. The king had a thousand arms and his divine varas, but Paraśurāma won. He cut off all of Kārtavīrya’s thousand arms and then killed him. He took back the cow and brought her to his father’s āśrama. (Vana Parva, Chapter 115)

Jamadagni was not pleased with Paraśurāma for killing a king. He held that a brāhmaṇa should not use violence even when wronged. He told Paraśurāma to make amends (prāyaścitta). Paraśurāma accepted his father’s word with humility.

Kārtavīrya’s sons kill Jamadagni

Kārtavīrya’s sons were crushed by their father’s death and burned for revenge. They came to Jamadagni’s āśrama when Paraśurāma was away. Jamadagni was sitting in quiet meditation. The sons attacked and killed him, striking down the unarmed ṛshi as he meditated. They left without fear, sure that Paraśurāma would not dare to strike back at a royal house in force. (Vana Parva, Chapter 116)

Renukā found her husband’s body and was overcome with grief. She beat her breast twenty-one times in her sorrow.

Paraśurāma’s vow

When Paraśurāma came back and found that his father had been murdered, his grief was complete, and his purpose was fixed in an instant. He took up his father’s body with full reverence. Then, before the fire, he made a terrible vow. He would make war on all the kshatriyas, and he would end the kshatriya race on earth twenty-one times, once for each time his mother had struck her breast in grief. (Vana Parva, Chapter 116)

Then he went out with his axe.

The twenty-one rounds

What followed was a campaign of destruction such as had never been seen. Paraśurāma hunted down kshatriya armies, kings and their families across the whole earth. King after king fell. Army after army was destroyed. Kshatriya women who survived had children by brāhmaṇas, and those children were raised as the next generation of kshatriyas, only to be destroyed in the next round. This went on twenty-one times. (Vana Parva, Chapter 117)

The blood of the kshatriya race gathered in five great lakes at the holy place Samantapañchaka, which later became the tīrtha of Kurukshetra-Samantapañchaka. Paraśurāma offered the śrāddha (the rite for the dead) for his father from these five lakes of blood. The pitṛs appeared and asked him to stop the killing. Paraśurāma had kept his vow to the letter, and he stopped.

After the killing

When his terrible work was done, Paraśurāma gave all the earth he had won to the ṛshi Kaśyapa as dakshiṇā (the priest’s fee) for the great yajña he performed. Kaśyapa accepted the gift and then told Paraśurāma that he could not stay on the earth he had given away. Paraśurāma must go to the mountains. Paraśurāma obeyed and went to Mahendra Parvata on the eastern coast, where he has lived ever since. (Vana Parva, Chapter 117)

Lomaśa tells this account to Yudhishṭhira at the tīrtha of Samantapañchaka, the very place where it happened. The five lakes of kshatriya blood there became the five holy pools of Kurukshetra.

The Aśvamedhika Parva telling

The Anugītā part of the Aśvamedhika Parva keeps a separate telling of the same conflict. It is set as an itihāsa inside the larger teaching between a brāhmaṇa and his wife (the Brāhmaṇa-Brāhmaṇī teaching, Chapters 20 to 34) that Śrī Kṛshṇa tells to Arjuna. Here the brāhmaṇa uses the episode to show that conquering the senses (indriyas) is the truest śaurya (valour), greater than the conquest of any outer enemy.

Kārtavīrya’s offence against the ocean

In this telling Kārtavīrya has already conquered the earth to the edge of the ocean by the strength of his own body. One day he was playing on the shore, swollen with pride in his strength (bala-garvita), and he shot hundreds of arrows at the ocean itself. Samudra appeared before him with folded hands and begged: “Best of heroes, do not rain your arrows on me. These mighty arrows are killing the beings who live in me. Grant them safety (abhaya).”

Kārtavīrya answered only with scorn. He demanded that Samudra name any hero anywhere who could meet him in an even fight. Samudra replied: “You have surely heard the name of the great ṛshi Jamadagni. Go to his āśrama. There his son Paraśurāma will give you the welcome (ātithya) you deserve.” (Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 29)

The killing, and the fall of the fleeing kshatriyas

Filled with great rage (mahākrodha), Kārtavīrya went to Jamadagni’s āśrama with his kinsmen and faced Paraśurāma. Paraśurāma cut off all one thousand of Kārtavīrya’s arms in a moment, as one fells a tree with many branches, and killed him. Kārtavīrya’s kinsmen closed in on Paraśurāma with swords and daggers. Paraśurāma took up his bow and chariot and destroyed their armies too. The kshatriyas who were left fled like small creatures before a lion and hid in mountain caves.

This telling adds a detail that the Vana Parva account does not have. Through long fear of Paraśurāma, those kings gave up their proper kshatriya duties of ruling and guarding their people. They went long without seeing brāhmaṇas and slowly sank to a state like that of śūdras. The text says plainly that the Draviḍas, Ābhīras, Paṇḍras and Śabaras arose from kshatriyas who fell to the rank of śūdras in this way. After the warriors were killed, brāhmaṇas fathered sons on their widows by the rule of niyoga (the custom of a brāhmaṇa fathering a child for a dead warrior). But these sons too, once grown, were cut down by Paraśurāma in the twenty-one rounds of kshatriya slaughter (kshatriya-saṃhāra). (Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 29)

The pitṛs, led by Ṛcīka, speak to Paraśurāma

After the twenty-one rounds of killing, a voice from the sky (ākāśavāṇī) spoke gently: “My son Paraśurāma, stop this killing now. What good do you see in taking the life of this kshatriya race again and again?” At the same moment his own forefathers, Ṛcīka and the other pitāmahas, also urged him to turn back from this cruel deed. Paraśurāma could not bear the memory of his father’s murder. He answered that it was not right for such revered ones to hold him back. Then the pitṛs spoke to him plainly: “Paraśurāma, best of conquerors, it is not right for you to kill these innocent kshatriyas. You are a brāhmaṇa, and the killing of a kshatriya by a brāhmaṇa is not fitting.” (Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 29)

The itihāsa of King Alarka

The pitṛs did not answer Paraśurāma’s grief directly. They told him an ancient itihāsa about the rājarshi (royal ṛshi) Alarka. Alarka, who had also conquered the earth with his bow, turned his mind to subtle truth (sūkshma-tattva). He decided to shoot his arrows at the mind (manas) and the senses (indriyas) as the true inner enemies. Each of them told him in turn that no such arrow could pierce them and that shooting it would only kill him. The only weapon that could conquer them was dhyāna-yoga (the yoga of meditation). By it Alarka entered the Ātman (the Self) and gained parama-siddhi, the highest perfection.

The pitṛs then commanded Paraśurāma: “Son, now that you understand all that has been told you, give up the killing of kshatriyas from this day. Give yourself to the hardest tapas. Through that alone you will reach the highest good (śreyas), which is moksha.” So commanded, Jamadagni’s son took up hard tapas and gained a rare siddhi. (Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 30)

Sources

Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 114–117: Chapter 114 (Dattātreya’s gifts), Chapter 115 (the theft of the cow; Kārtavīrya killed), Chapter 116 (Jamadagni killed; Paraśurāma’s vow), Chapter 117 (the twenty-one rounds; the gift to Kaśyapa)
Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapters 29–30: Chapter 29 (Kārtavīrya and Samudra; the killing; the words of the pitṛs), Chapter 30 (the itihāsa of Alarka). The Brāhmaṇa-Brāhmaṇī teaching in which it sits runs through Chapters 20–34.