Kārtavīrya Arjuna, the Thousand-Armed King

Kārtavīrya Arjuna is also called Sahasrabāhu, “the thousand-armed”. He was the supreme cakravartī (universal emperor) of the Haihaya branch of the Yadu dynasty. He ruled from his capital Māhishmatī on the Narmadā. The great ṛshi Dattātreya gave him four varas (boons): a thousand arms, the power to restrain adharma over the whole earth, conquest of the whole world without defeat, and a warrior’s death at the hands of a great man.

The Purāṇas say he ruled for 85,000 years. His quarrel with Jamadagni over the Kāmadhenu and his capture of Rāvaṇa are among the great episodes of his reign. Paraśurāma slew him, and this fulfilled the śāpa (curse) of the ṛshi Āpava.

Lineage: Yadu to Haihaya to Kārtavīrya

Kārtavīrya Arjuna was born in the Haihaya branch of the Yadu dynasty. The Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa gives the line like this: Yadu, Sahasrajit, Śatajit, Haihaya, Dharmanetra, Kuntī, Sañjaya, Mahishmān, Bhadrasena, Durmada, Kanaka, Kṛtavīrya, then Kārtavīrya Arjuna. His father Kṛtavīrya was himself a great king. Kārtavīrya Arjuna received the full honour and power of the Haihaya line. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa tells this in the Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 69.

The four varas from Dattātreya

Kārtavīrya Arjuna was a devoted disciple of Dattātreya, the divine avadhūta (a wandering renunciant) who was a combined avatāra of the Trimūrti. Through true devotion and service, he received four varas:

A thousand arms. He could show a thousand working arms in battle and in the work of ruling.
The power to perceive and restrain adharma throughout the earth.
Conquest of the whole earth without defeat. No army, no king and no being in the three worlds could beat him in open battle.
Death only at the hands of a man famed through the three worlds.

These four varas made him the supreme ruler of the whole known world. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa tells this in the Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 69.

A reign of eighty-five thousand years

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa states that Kārtavīrya Arjuna ruled as cakravartī for 85,000 years. In this long span no crime went unpunished anywhere in his realm, and no dharma went unprotected. He kept the earth in peace and order. Nārada sang his praise in a special gāthā (a verse of praise). It tells that even the devas and dānavas could not equal this king in might and virtue. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa tells this in the Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 69.

Play with a thousand arms in the sea

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa also describes Kārtavīrya at play in the ocean. He entered the sea and showed all his thousand arms. He churned the waters with the force of them together. This raised huge waves and shook the ocean so much that it affected the lands around it. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa tells this in the Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 69.

Rāvaṇa captured at Māhishmatī

One of the best-known episodes of his reign is the capture of Rāvaṇa. The mighty rākshasa king Rāvaṇa came to Māhishmatī on the Narmadā during his digvijaya (march of conquest). Kārtavīrya Arjuna met him. He seized Rāvaṇa with ease and shut him in a cage, as one would a common animal. Rāvaṇa had conquered the three worlds, and Brahmā had given him varas that made him unconquerable. Yet this defeat shamed him. He stayed in prison until the ṛshi Pulastya, Rāvaṇa’s own great-grandfather, came to Māhishmatī and begged for his release. Kārtavīrya Arjuna honoured the great ṛshi and set Rāvaṇa free. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa tells this in the Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 69.

Āpava’s curse

The ṛshi Āpava had a holy āśrama (hermitage) through which the Narmadā flowed. During his play in the water, Kārtavīrya Arjuna’s thousand arms beat the river so hard that its banks broke and Āpava’s āśrama was damaged. The ṛshi’s tapas (austerity) was disturbed, and he laid a śāpa on Kārtavīrya Arjuna. In spite of all his varas and power, Paraśurāma, the son of Jamadagni, would slay him. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa tells this in the Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 69.

The quarrel with Jamadagni

A quarrel arose between Kārtavīrya Arjuna and Jamadagni. The king came to Jamadagni’s āśrama with his whole army. The divine cow Kāmadhenu fed the army in plenty by her wonderful powers. Kārtavīrya Arjuna wanted the cow for himself. Jamadagni refused, and the king took the cow by force. This was what first roused Paraśurāma’s anger. He went after Kārtavīrya Arjuna and won back Kāmadhenu. In a decisive battle he slew the king with the Pāśupata that Bhagavān Śiva had given him. The Sudarśana cakra consumed Kārtavīrya Arjuna’s body. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa tells this in the Madhyama Bhāga, Chapters 38–40.

His death

In the great battle at Māhishmatī (Chapters 38–40), Paraśurāma faced Kārtavīrya Arjuna’s huge army. The text describes it as hundreds of thousands of troops with elephants, horses and chariots. Paraśurāma cut through the army with his paraśu (axe), the Nārāyaṇāstra and other weapons. Among those he killed was Maṅgala, the king of the Matsyas. When Kārtavīrya Arjuna himself came forward, Paraśurāma used the Pāśupatāstra and slew him.

The Purāṇa adds that Kārtavīrya Arjuna’s hundred sons kept fighting Paraśurāma after their father’s death. Later, Kārtavīrya’s son Śūra killed Jamadagni in revenge. This act drove Paraśurāma to his vow to destroy the kshatriyas twenty-one times.

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa also says that Kārtavīrya Arjuna was an avatāra of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s Sudarśana cakra. At Vishṇupāda-tīrtha, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa tells Paraśurāma that Kārtavīrya was “the avatāra of my cakra in the world” (Chapter 37). The Sudarśana consumed his body in death.

The Vāyu Purāṇa account

The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa gives the Haihaya line as: Haihaya, Dharmatatva, Mahishmanta, Bhadraśreṇya (king of Vārāṇasī), Durmada, Kanaka, Kṛtavīrya, then Kārtavīrya Arjuna. It says Kṛtavīrya had four sons: Kṛtavīrya, Kārtavīrya, Kṛtavarman and Kṛta. Of these, Kārtavīrya Arjuna, born of Kṛtavīrya, was the greatest. The Vāyu Purāṇa also tells more of his tapas and his varas.

In the Vāyu Purāṇa the four varas from Dattātreya are these. The first is the thousand arms. The second is the power to see and restrain adharma, so that dharma is kept through the earth without being broken. The third is conquest of the whole earth of seven dvīpas (continents). The fourth is death at the hands of one born in a higher station. The Vāyu Purāṇa says that in battle his thousand arms, his chariot and his war-banner arose through māyā. They were not always there, but appeared when needed. It also says that Nārada and the gandharvas sang his praises in gāthās.

The Vāyu Purāṇa tells his end through Vasishṭha’s śāpa. Agni was given the earth of seven dvīpas as bhikshā (alms). He burned Vasishṭha’s āśrama. In anger Vasishṭha declared that Paraśurāma, a brāhmaṇa of unmatched might, would cut off his thousand arms and slay him. The Vāyu Purāṇa tells this in the Uttarārdha, Chapter 3.

The Mahābhārata account in the Vana Parva

In the Vana Parva (Chapters 114–117), Akṛtavraṇa, the disciple of Paraśurāma, tells the Pāṇḍavas about Kārtavīrya Arjuna. In this account Kārtavīrya received his wonderful powers from Dattātreya through devoted service. The quarrel with Jamadagni arose when Kārtavīrya took the kāmadhenu from the ṛshi’s āśrama. Paraśurāma killed Kārtavīrya in battle. Kārtavīrya’s sons then killed Jamadagni in revenge while Paraśurāma was away. Paraśurāma then began the twenty-one-fold destruction of the kshatriyas, as an atonement and to fulfil his dharma. He filled five lakes with their blood at Samantapañcaka, the place also known as Kurukshetra.

The Samudra–Kārtavīrya Saṃvāda in the Aśvamedhika Parva

The Anugītā Parva, within the Aśvamedhika Parva (Chapter 29), keeps another itihāsa about Kārtavīrya’s pride. A brāhmaṇa who is not named tells it to his wife. He gives it as proof that conquering the indriyas (senses) is the truest heroism.

Kārtavīrya had already conquered the earth up to the edge of the ocean. One day he played on the shore, swollen with pride in his own strength, and shot hundreds of arrows into the ocean itself. Samudra appeared before him with folded hands and begged him to spare the beings dying within him. Kārtavīrya answered only with scorn. He demanded that Samudra name any hero anywhere who was his equal. Samudra then pointed him with sharp irony to the āśrama of Jamadagni, where Jamadagni’s son Paraśurāma would give him fitting ātithya (hospitality). This “hospitality” proved to be death.

This telling also records that the kshatriyas who survived Paraśurāma’s slaughter lived long in fear of him. They were kept from the sight of brāhmaṇas and slowly sank into a śūdra-like state. The text names the Draviḍas, Ābhīras, Paṇḍras and Śabaras as peoples that arose from kshatriyas who fell in this way. The same chapter also holds the Pitṛs’ rebuke of Paraśurāma and the Alarka-vṛttānta (the account of Alarka) set within it.

The Pavana–Arjuna Saṃvāda in the Anuśāsana Parva

The Anuśāsana Parva keeps a separate itihāsa about Kārtavīrya Arjuna. Bhīshma tells it to Yudhishṭhira to show the greatness of brāhmaṇas (brāhmaṇa-māhātmya).

Kārtavīrya Arjuna was full of the four varas from Dattātreya. In this account they are: a thousand arms that appear in battle; the power to conquer the whole earth; the ability to rule it by dharma; and the promise that good men (sat-purushas) would correct him if his own excess led him into wrong conduct. He proclaimed in the open sky that no being, human or divine, was his equal. A voice without a body called out. The account names it Sarasvatī or Gāyatrī, and also niśācarī. It declared that brāhmaṇas are above kshatriyas. The king answered that kshatriyas are above, because brāhmaṇas live under kshatriya protection and survive by begging. He boasted that he would defeat every brāhmaṇa in the three worlds and remake the order of the world so that kshatra stood above brahma.

Then Vāyu, the messenger of the devas, took up the argument. Over five chapters he proved the greatness of brāhmaṇas through nine itihāsas about brāhmaṇa-tejas (the radiance of brāhmaṇas) overturning devas, oceans and kings. The itihāsas named are:

Kaśyapa and the fleeing Earth
Utathya and Varuṇa
Kapila and the sons of Sagara
Agastya and the dānavas
Vasishṭha and the Khalin rākshasas
Atri becoming the Moon and the Sun
Cyavana and Mada
the destruction of the Kapas by the brāhmaṇas

Beaten in the argument, Kārtavīrya Arjuna admitted that all his strength was Dattātreya’s grace and that he lived for brāhmaṇas alone. As he left, Vāyu warned him that a ghora bhaya (terrible danger) from the Bhṛgu line awaited him in time. That warning came true in his death at the hands of Paraśurāma.

Sources

Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapters 37–40, 69
Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 3
Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 114–117
Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapters 152–157
Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 29