Chapter 6

Parashurama

His father said kill your mother, and the son picked up the axe

A cow, and a king

At Jamadagni's hermitage lived Kamadhenu, the miraculous cow said to provide whatever was asked of her.

One day King Kartavirya Arjuna stopped at the hermitage after a hunt. To his astonishment, the small household was able to feed his entire army.

When he left, one thought stayed with him: a cow with such power belonged, in his view, with a king rather than a sage.

So Kamadhenu was taken by force.

The order that was given

That was only one of the events that shaped Jamadagni's youngest son.

On another day, Jamadagni became suspicious of his wife Renuka after a moment's delay and a wandering thought. He ordered his sons to kill her.

The elder sons refused and were cursed in turn.

Then the command came to the youngest.

Rama — later known as Parashurama — obeyed.

The boon that was asked for

Pleased, Jamadagni offered him a boon.

Parashurama asked for his mother to be restored to life, for her memory of the killing to be erased, and for the curses on his brothers to be lifted.

All three requests were granted.

But one person still remembered exactly what had happened: Parashurama himself.

Twenty-one times

Later, Kartavirya's sons came to the hermitage and killed Jamadagni.

Parashurama returned to find his father dead and his mother beating her breast in grief — twenty-one times.

He remembered the number.

Tradition says that he then campaigned against the kshatriyas twenty-one times — in the epics' own language, "clearing the earth of kshatriyas." It is an epic formulation, not a modern demographic claim.

The one who did not stop, and then stopped

Yet the story does not end with revenge.

In the end, tradition says, Parashurama laid down his axe, gave away the lands he had won, and withdrew to the mountains.

And even then, his story was not over. He is counted among the Chiranjivis, the immortals of tradition. That is why he appears again in later stories — before Rama, before Bhishma, before Karna.

The same man each time, carrying the memory of what he had done.

Note: Parashurama's story is found in the Mahabharata (Vana Parva and Shanti Parva) and in several Puranas including the Bhagavata. The order about Renuka and the boon asked for afterwards run together in tradition; the texts offer no moral justification for the episode. "He cleared the earth of kshatriyas twenty-one times" is repeated everywhere, but has not been taken to mean the same thing everywhere — and it is recorded here as written, without deciding how literal it is. Parashurama's being a Chiranjivi, and his returning in both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, is recorded in both epics.

Source: from several texts, Parashurama

Now — how much stayed with you?

Fact

Who were Parashurama's father and mother?

  • Kashyapa and Aditi
  • Dasharatha and Kausalya
  • Vasudeva and Devaki
  • Jamadagni and Renuka
Read the whole story — A sage's house, and an axe

Parashurama's actual name was Rama. "Parashu" means axe, said to have been given to him by Shiva — and the name was made from it.

He was born in a brahmin household, and lived a kshatriya's whole life. Tradition underlines this again and again, because it is the deepest tangle in his character.

Jamadagni is counted among the Saptarishis, and Renuka is still worshipped in parts of south India, in some places as Yellamma.

What happened?

What did Jamadagni order his sons to do, and who carried it out?

  • To bring the cow back, and the eldest son did
  • To kill the king, and Parashurama did
  • To kill their mother Renuka, and the youngest son Parashurama did
  • To leave the hermitage, and nobody did
Read the whole story — An order nobody wanted to obey

This is the hardest episode in the gatha, and the story does not soften it.

The elder brothers refuse one by one, and each time their father curses them. The youngest does not refuse.

The texts offer no justification for this and do not defend it either. They say what happened — and move on.

Why is that?

What did Parashurama ask for as his boon after carrying out the order?

  • That his father give him the axe
  • That his mother live, that she not remember it, and that his brothers' curse be lifted
  • That he become unconquerable
  • That King Kartavirya be killed
Read the whole story — The boon that reversed it all

This detail gives the whole story another colour — the son who obeyed the order arranges, in the same breath, to undo it.

He asked nothing for himself. All three things were for other people — for his mother, for his mother's memory, and for his brothers.

And all three were granted. The only thing not erased was his own memory, and the story carries that forward.

Fact

How many times did Parashurama clear the earth of kshatriyas, and where does that count come from?

  • Seven times, from the count of the Saptarishis
  • Twenty-one times, because his mother struck her breast twenty-one times over his father's death
  • Twelve times, from the twelve months
  • A hundred times
Read the whole story — A count that was measured

This detail makes the story very tight — the revenge was not taken by estimate, it was taken by counting.

The breast was struck twenty-one times, so twenty-one times. The story says no more and no less.

"Clearing the earth of kshatriyas" is a phrase repeated in the Mahabharata and the Puranas, and it has long been read as an age turning rather than a literal extermination — because kshatriyas are present in the very next stories.

Who am I?

I am the cow from whom whatever was asked was given. A king took me by force, and this whole story began with that. Who am I?

  • Airavata
  • Uchchaihshravas
  • Kamadhenu
  • Nandini
Read the whole story — The same cow, again

Kamadhenu is appearing for the second time in this gatha — first out of the churning of the ocean, now at a hermitage.

The quarrel in this story is not over a kingdom or a throne. It is over a cow, and a whole age turns because of it.

That detail is also the key to reading the story: the collision is between a king and a sage, which is to say between power and penance.

Who said it?

"Let my mother live, and let her not remember it." — who said this?

  • Renuka
  • Parashurama
  • Jamadagni
  • The elder brothers
Read the whole story — The apology hidden inside the asking

The second half of that sentence is the heaviest — "let her not remember it."

Bringing her back is one thing; asking as well that his mother never learn who had done it is another.

The story does not explain what that means. But having read the whole chapter, the sentence stays where it is — and it is what keeps Parashurama from being only a figure of rage.

Later tradition

Which later stories does Parashurama return in?

  • None; his story ends here
  • Only in the Ramayana
  • In the Ramayana before Rama, and in the Mahabharata before Bhishma and Karna
  • Only in the Mahabharata
Read the whole story — The avatar who does not leave

Parashurama is counted among the Chiranjivis — those few characters who do not end with an age.

Which is why he comes before Rama after Sita's swayamvara in the Ramayana, and in the Mahabharata fights Bhishma and later curses Karna after teaching him.

This is one of the very few places where two epics meet — like Hanuman and Bhima meeting in Hanuman-Gatha. On this site the same join shows again here.

Riddle

I was born in a brahmin's house, and did all my life what is held to be a kshatriya's work. And at the end I gave away every piece of land I had won. Who am I?

  • Dronacharya
  • Kripacharya
  • Vishvamitra
  • Parashurama
Read the whole story — On both sides, and on neither

Parashurama's whole character stands on that doubleness — brahmin by birth, warrior by work.

And at the end he does not keep what he won. The land is given away, and he goes into the hills.

Which is why tradition does not hold him up as an ideal. He is the one avatar the texts themselves seem uneasy about, and that is what makes him interesting.

Put it in order

What is the correct order of this chapter's events?

  • The seizing of Kamadhenu → the order about Renuka and the boon → the killing of Jamadagni → the twenty-one clearings → setting the axe down
  • The twenty-one clearings → the order about Renuka → Kamadhenu → the killing of Jamadagni
  • The order about Renuka → Kamadhenu → the clearings → the killing of Jamadagni
  • The killing of Jamadagni → Kamadhenu → Renuka → the clearings
Read the whole story — One quarrel, which kept growing

What is worth seeing in this order is that it starts very small — one cow — and ends with an age changing.

What happens in between is no part of any plan. Every step is an answer to the step before it.

And the last step is not revenge. It is stopping, which the story speaks of least and which matters most.

The texts disagree

What is true about Parashurama's story?

  • It is found in the Mahabharata and in several Puranas, and the details
  • It is only in the Bhagavata Purana
  • It is in no ancient text
  • It is exactly the same in every text
Read the whole story — One story, many hands

Parashurama's story comes in the Vana Parva and the Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, and in the Bhagavata and other Puranas.

"Clearing the earth of kshatriyas twenty-one times" is repeated everywhere, but it has not been read the same way everywhere — in some places a literal slaughter, in others the manner of a ruling class passing away.

Which is why the phrase is recorded here as the texts give it, without deciding how literally it should be taken.