Avatar 6 of 10 · Treta Yuga · त्रेता युग
Parashurama Avatar · Rama with the Axe
परशुराम अवतार · फरसाधारी राम
The sage-warrior with the axe, who humbled kings grown cruel with power, and later learned to lay down his anger.
फरसा धारण करने वाले ऋषि-योद्धा, जिन्होंने सत्ता के मद में क्रूर हुए राजाओं का दमन किया, और बाद में अपना क्रोध त्यागना भी सीखा।
The story of Parashurama · परशुराम की कथा
The Axe and the Bow
Parashurama was the son of the sage Jamadagni and his wife Renuka. He was a brahmin by birth, yet he mastered the arts of war, and Shiva himself gave him a shining axe, the parashu, from which he took his name.
One day the mighty king Kartavirya Arjuna, who had a thousand arms, visited Jamadagni’s hermitage. The sage welcomed him with a feast, made possible by his wish-granting cow. Greedy for such a treasure, the king took the cow by force. Parashurama returned, heard what had happened, and went after the king alone. In the fight that followed, Kartavirya fell.
The king’s sons wanted revenge. When Parashurama was away, they came to the hermitage and killed his father as he sat in meditation. Grief turned into a fire of anger in Parashurama. Twenty-one times he went across the land, humbling the kings who had used their power to oppress the weak.
Many years later, the young prince Rama broke Shiva’s great bow at Sita’s swayamvara. Parashurama heard the sound across the land and arrived in fury, challenging the prince to string an even mightier bow, the bow of Vishnu. Rama calmly took it, strung it with ease and fitted an arrow. In that moment Parashurama recognised the same divine light in the young prince, the light that had once moved through him.
He bowed, gave the bow to Rama and walked away to the mountains to live in peace and penance. In the ages that followed he became a teacher, and great warriors such as Bhishma, Drona and Karna learned from him. Having once burned with anger, he spent the rest of his long life teaching others.
The lesson
Strength must serve justice, and true strength also knows when to step aside.
Story: Retold from the Bhagavata Purana (9.15–9.16), the Mahabharata and the Valmiki Ramayana
In the scriptures · शास्त्रों में
The original verses, with their romanisation and our own English and Hindi translation.
अवतारे षोडशमे पश्यन् ब्रह्मद्रुहो नृपान् । त्रिःसप्तकृत्वः कुपितो निःक्षत्रामकरोन्महीम् ॥
avatāre ṣoḍaśame paśyan brahmadruho nṛpān triḥsaptakṛtvaḥ kupito niḥkṣatrāmakaronmahīm
In His sixteenth descent, seeing that the kings had turned against truth and the wise, He in His anger freed the earth of such rulers twenty-one times.
सोलहवें अवतार में, राजाओं को सत्य और ज्ञानियों का द्रोही देखकर, उन्होंने क्रोध में इक्कीस बार पृथ्वी को ऐसे शासकों से मुक्त किया।
क्षत्रियरुधिरमये जगदपगतपापम् । स्नपयसि पयसि शमितभवतापम् ॥ केशव धृतभृगुपतिरूप जय जगदीश हरे ॥
kṣatriyarudhiramaye jagadapagatapāpam snapayasi payasi śamitabhavatāpam keśava dhṛtabhṛgupatirūpa jaya jagadīśa hare
You bathe the world in a lake of the warriors’ blood, washing away its sin and easing its suffering. O Keshava, who took the form of the lord of the Bhrigus: victory to you, Hari, lord of the world!
आप संसार को क्षत्रियों के रक्त रूपी जल में स्नान कराते हैं, जिससे उसका पाप धुल जाता है और संताप शांत होता है। हे केशव, भृगुपति रूप धारण करने वाले जगदीश हरि, आपकी जय हो!