Episode 51 

                                   

Parasurama – the 6^th Incarnation of Maha Vishnu[i]

In one of our previous episodes (Episode 49 – Gangavataranam), we have read the anecdote of Maharshi Jahnu devouring the entire waters of Ganga and left the water to drop from his ears on the request of Bhagiratha. The sage Jahnu’s great grandson was Kusanabha and Kusanabha’s daughter was Satyavati, a beautiful lady par excellence.  

Rucheeka, a Brahmin from Brigu clan wanted to marry Satyavathi and told his intentions to Kusanabha. But Kusanabha did not like Rucheeka and so he told, ‘our tradition demands that the groom should fetch thousand white horses with black ears’ as ‘kanya sulka’ (money given for the marriage of a bride).

Rucheeka was not disheartened. He prayed to god Varuna and procured the horses as a gift from a pool of water (Varuna is the god of rain). The waters from which the horses emerged is even now venerated as Aswa Teertha (Aswa in Sanskrit means horse). He gave the horses as ‘kanya sulka’ and married Satyavathi.

One day Satyavathi approached her husband and prayed for sons both for her and her mother. Rucheeka prepared separate rice pudding with intonation of mantras and asked both to have it[ii]. Satyavathi disobeyed the specific orders of her husband and exchanged the pudding with her mother. Rucheeka got angry and told, ‘You shall have a son with kshatriya valour, and your mother shall have a son with a brahmin virtues’. Satyavathi begged excuse and asked, ‘Hey Swamy, let my son also be satvik in nature with Brahmin virtues and let my grandson be of kshatriya valour’. Rucheeka agreed.

In due course of time Satyavathi gave birth to Jamadagni, a saintly and sattvic rishi. He married Renuka and was leading a dharmic life. He was blessed with five sons and the last son was Parasurama. Parasurama destroyed the clan of kshatriyas by invading them twenty-one times and filled a lake with their blood.

Dharmaraja wanted to know why Parasurama became so aggressive against kshatriyas. The rishi started telling his detailed story.

Kartaveerya and his aggression

Haihayas were the foremost clan in kshatriyas in those days. The greatest amongst the Haihayas was a powerful king, Kartaveerya who was ruling the earth with Mahishmathi as his capital. He was so valorous that he defeated Ravana with his might and imprisoned him for some days. He was the disciple of Dattatreya and knew the ashta siddhis (eight special powers).

One day Kartaveerya was hunting in a forest and he reached the place of Jamadagni. With the blessings of his celestial cow, Jamadagni hosted a sumptuous lunch to all the soldiers of the king without any difficulty. Kartaveerya was impressed by the cow and forcefully took away the celestial cow much against the wish of Jamadagni.

War between Kartaveerya and Parasurama

Parasurama returned to the hermitage and learnt everything from his father. He was very angry and set out to kill Kartaveerya. A fearful battle took place. Initially Kartaveerya started sending his forces consisting of seventeen akshohinis but all those were killed by Parasurama. Kartaveerya himself reached the battlefield. Parasurama chopped off his thousand shoulders and his head with his axe. The sons of Kartaveerya took to their heels. Parasurama returned back to his father with the cow.

But Jamadagni was not happy with his son. He told, ‘My dear son! The king is the embodiment of god and you have killed him (अवधीन्नरदेवं यत्सर्व देवमयं वृथा)[iii]. Killing the king is more sinful than Brahma hatya (killing a Brahmin). I advise you to go on pilgrimages with a steadfast mind on Achyuta and get redeemed from the sin’. We Brahmins get respect from society by our power of forbearance (वयं हि ब्राह्मणास्तात क्षमय्याsर्हणतां गताः)[iv]. Parasurama obliged the orders of his father.

Parasurama killing his mother

Renuka, the wife of Jamadagni one day went out to fetch water from a river. Unexpectedly she saw a Gandharva by name Chitraratha enjoying and playing with his wives in waters. Her looks were deadly glued to him and mentally she aspired him. By the time she reached home, her glorious spiritual aura had just disappeared, and she looked pale and she was afraid to look at her husband’s face straight. Jamadagni could know from his personal insight the sin committed by her and he ordered his four sons to chop off her head. But they refused to kill their mother.

Jamadagni called out his fifth son, Parasurama. Without any hesitation he chopped off the heads of his mother and his brothers. Jamadagni became cool and asked Parasurama to ask for any boon. Parasurama asked for the restoration of lives of all those died. Jamadagni obliged; and Renuka and her other sons woke up as if they were waking up from the slumber.

Parasurama’s expedition against Kshatriya kings

One day when Jamadagni was alone in the house, the sons of Kartaveerya ransacked the hermitage of Jamadagni, dragged him out and mercilessly killed him to avenge the death of their father. By evening Parasurama came back and saw the dead body of his father. He wept bitterly and addressing his father’s corpse he cried, ‘Oh father! You are old, you are pious, you are nonviolent to the core and you are doing tapas. How can anybody kill you?’

Then he invaded the camps of Kartaveerya and killed all his sons. Many Kshatriya warriors came to their support and all were killed in the battlefield. Parasurama took the pledge to kill all the Kshatriya kings and started expeditions against them for twenty-one times. He conquered all the kingdoms upon the earth and gave the entire earth as a gift to sage Kasyapa and went to Mahendragiri (currently it is in Cambodia) for tapas.

Dharmaraja heard the story and he stayed for a night on Mahendragiri and on the following day he had the darshan of Parasurama.

Parasurama – Insights from Ramayana

In Ramayana we come across the arrival of Parasurama after Rama’s marriage with Sita. Parasurama reached the place of Sri Rama and challenged him to aim the powerful bow of Vishnu so that he can have the chance to wrestle with Parasurama.

तदहं ते बलं दृष्ट्वा धनुषोsस्य प्रपूरणे |

द्वन्द्वयुद्धं प्रदास्यामि वीर्य! श्लाघ्यस्य राघव![v]

(Show your strength by aiming this bow and get the accolades of the warriors. Then I shall bestow the honour of wrestling with me).

Parasurama refused to concede the request of Dasaratha to let Rama go. Rama accepted the challenge posed by Parasurama and took the Vishnu bow into his hands. Parasurama was awestruck to see the Vaishnava teja (the glory of Vishnu) just slipped into Rama from his own self. He realised that Rama was none other than Lord Vishnu and left the place to Mahendragiri for tapas.

Understanding the story

Parasurama is the incarnation of Lord Vishnu as per Hindu belief. If we read the entire story one gets the doubt as to what great deeds are accomplished in this incarnation and what the purpose of this avatara (incarnation) is! In fact, Jamadagni says that by killing a crowned king, Parasurama committed a sin (अवधीन्नरदेवं यत्सर्व देवमयं वृथा – Srimad Bhagavatam 9- 15.38). The whole narrative appears as if a person avenging the death of his father.

But the story has to be understood from a greater perspective. In Srimad Bhagavatam, the purpose of this incarnation is described as follows:

दुष्टं क्षत्रं भुवो भारमब्रह्मण्यमनीनसत् |

रजस्तमो वृत्त महन् फल्गुन्यपि कृतेऽहासि ||[vi]

(The Kshatriyas who are imbued with rajas and tamas and who oppress and exploit the learned dharmic people were destroyed by Parasurama for general welfare even if the offences were minute sometime). Jamadagni was a pious and learned sage and hosted a lunch for the king Kartaveerya. But the king took away his cow with force. Later the sons of Kartaveerya killed Jamadagni though he never offended them. The killing of Jamadagni is not just the killing of Parasura’s father but the killing of dharma itself. The purpose of incarnation has been spelt out very clearly in Gita-

·       for protecting the pious people - परित्राणाय साधूनां

·       for destroying the wicked people - विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम्‌

·       for establishing the righteousness in the world - धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय

All the three objectives are justified in this sixth incarnation of Parasurama.

Secondly, a few intellectuals commented that the narrative of the incarnation of Parasurama reflects the internal war between Brahmins and Kshatriyas and the story heralds victory of Brahmins over Kshatriyas. This assumption is totally baseless. The incarnation is never for caste aggressions or racism as some people interpret it. In Rama incarnation, Rama is a Kshatriya and he killed Ravana, a Brahmin. Vruttasura was a brahmin but an asura (demon) and so he was killed by Lord Indra. Hence Parasurama’s incarnation cannot be interpreted as aggression of Kshatriyas over Brahmins. The fight is between dharma vis-à-vis adharma and never on caste lines or from the moral lenses of current century.

The last point is can two incarnations exist at the same time. How is it possible? Commentators opine that it is possible to have many incarnations at the same time. The emergence of Sri Rama is when the purpose of Parasurama incarnation was just getting over.

Points to ponder

1.   What is the purpose of god’s incarnation upon earth?

2.   What do you understand by ‘kanya sulka’? Does this concept suggest the importance given to women in society of Maha Bharata times?

Stories connected to Parasurama

a.   The regional literature of Kerala eulogises Parasurama as the person who retrieved land from the ocean which is now being called as Kerala. The legend of Parasurama and his martial arts are very famous in Kerala.

b.   Parasurama was the guru of Bhishma and later Karna. For the sake of Amba who sought refuge with Parasurama, he fought with Bhishma for twenty-four days and perhaps this was the only occasion when the war resulted into stalemate and no one emerged victorious. 

Footnotes

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[i] The story of Parasurama appears in Maha Bharata, Srimadramayana and Srimad Maha Bhagavatam. This story in this episode is taken from all these books.

[ii] In Maha Bharata, it is written that Satyavathi and her mother approached sage Bhrigu who was the father of Rucheeka and prayed for sons. In Srimad Bhagavatam, they approached Rucheeka.

[iii] avadhīnnaradevaṃ yatsarva devamayaṃ vṛthā - Srimad Bhagavatam 9- 15.38)

[iv] vayaṃ hi brāhmaṇāstāta kṣamayyāsrhaṇatāṃ gatāḥ - Srimad Bhagavatam 9-15.39

[v] tadahaṃ te balaṃ dṛṣṭvā dhanuṣossya prapūraṇe |

dvandvayuddhaṃ pradāsyāmi vīrya! ślāghyasya rāghava! - Valmiki Ramayana Bala kanda 75.4

[vi] duṣṭaṃ kṣatraṃ bhuvo bhāramabrahmaṇyamanīnasat |

Rajastamo vṛtta mahan phalgunyapi kṛte'hāsi || - Srimadbhagavatam 9.15-15

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