Parashurama- Hindu GodDeity"Rama with the Axe"

The Axe

Parashurama was born to the sage Jamadagni and his wife Renuka, the sixth avatar of Vishnu. He performed severe austerities to Shiva, who granted him the parashu, the battle axe from which he takes his name, and taught him warfare and the use of divine weapons. A brahmin who could fight like no kshatriya ever born.

The Twenty-One Wars

King Kartavirya Arjuna, a kshatriya ruler with a thousand arms, raided Jamadagni's hermitage and stole the divine cow Kamadhenu. Parashurama hunted him down and killed him. Kartavirya's sons retaliated. They attacked the ashram while Parashurama was away and murdered the defenseless sage. Parashurama returned to find his father's body and his mother Renuka striking her chest in grief, twenty-one times.

He swore to exterminate the kshatriya class twenty-one times. The Bhagavata Purana says the pools at Samantapanchaka filled with kshatriya blood. When the vow was fulfilled, Parashurama performed a great sacrifice and gave the entire conquered earth to the sage Kashyapa. Then he walked away from conquest.

The Immortal

Parashurama never died. He is one of the Chiranjivi, the seven immortals who endure until the end of the present age. Long after his wars, he taught Bhishma, Drona, and Karna the martial knowledge Shiva had given him. The warriors he trained fought on opposite sides at Kurukshetra.

When Rama, the seventh avatar, broke Shiva's bow at Sita's svayamvara, Parashurama appeared on the road and challenged him. He drew the bow of Vishnu and told Rama to string it. Rama did, and in the same motion turned the arrow on Parashurama himself. The older avatar's divine power drained from him and passed into the younger. Parashurama bowed and withdrew to the Mahendra Mountains.