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Jamadagni had just finished up his rituals and was returning home. He had been so happy recently after the birth of his son, Parashurama. The one thing he could not shake was that his son always seemed to grab at weapons. He was pondering this when he walked through the doorway of his house and saw his infant child wielding a large axe. Dismayed, he took the axe from him and placed it out of reach. Unable to understand what had happened, he decided to distract himself by performing some chores. He went outside and watered the new cow that he had been given by the king of the Haihaiya clan.
Events like this happened quite often as Parashurama grew into a boy and then a young man. Jamadagni thought he would make use of Parashurama and have him wield his axe for something productive like chopping wood. One day while Jamadagni and Parashurama were completing chores, three horses rode up to their home. Jamadagni went to great them. The lead rider announced himself as Kritarjuna, the son of the king of the Haihaiyas. Kritarjuna demanded that Jamadagni return the cow to him. Jamadagni summarily refused, which enraged Kritarjuna. Kritarjuna jumped from his horse and knocked Jamadagni over, then told the two other men to go grab the cow. Parashurama, seeing this, grabbed his axe and hacked the two men to pieces. He then marched up to Kritarjuna and chopped him in half with the axe.
Parashurama, still seething with anger, looked to see if his father was alright. To his relief, Jamadagni was indeed fine. Parashurama helped his father to his feet and set about cleaning up. Somehow the king of the Hahaiyasf heard about the death of his son, so he gathered together his other sons and they rode off to seek revenge. Upon reaching the dwelling of Jamadagni, they found the rishi alone tending to the sacred cow. The king’s sons grabbed him and exacted their revenge. They then left. Parashurama returned not long after. Seeing his dead father sent him into a murderous rage. He grabbed his axe and sought to find the king and anyone else who thought that being a warrior was righteous. He slayed countless warriors on his march to the palace of the Haihaiya clan. Once there, he killed every male member of the Haihaiya clan. His rage was not sated, so he set out across the land killing every warrior he came across.
Eventually Parshurama calmed down and realized the atrocities he had committed. He journeyed to the nearest holy site and began to pray. He prayed to the gods for days on end begging to be shown a path to forgiveness. After a fortnight of fasting and praying, Parashurama was approached by a group of sages who had come to this location perform a ritual.
They saw Parashurama and how sickly he looked from not eating, and the lead sage asked him, "Why are you not eating? A stout man like yourself should eat to stay strong."
Parashurama responded, "I am fasting while I pray to the gods. I have committed horrible atrocities and need to know how to repent."
The leader spoke again, "I think we can help you out. Because you have destroyed the ruling class, you need to install a new one. The Brahmins will be benevolent rulers. If you do this you might avoid damnation."
Parashurama, thankful for their help, dined with the sages at their behest. By the next morning his physical stature was restored, and he began his new quest. As he left the holy site, he saw his Axe sitting on the ground covered in blood. He was disgusted with himself. He decided that he should get rid of his axe because no longer needed it. He traveled to the southwestern coast of Indian and looked across the vast ocean. He hurled the axe with all the force he could muster. The axe flew through the air turning end over end until it flew out of sight for Parashurama. He turned and began to walk away from the ocean. He had not taken but two steps when he heard the rushing of water. He turned to see the ocean receding. Dumbfounded by this, Parashurama decided to follow the receding ocean. He followed it for miles until he came upon his axe in the sand and standing next to it, he saw Varuna the god of the oceans.
Varuna beckoned to Parashurama and said, "I saw your plight and I heard your prayers. I want to give you this land so that you can create a better India."
Parashurma replied, "Thank you so much. I will try to create a great India, but what about the land. Is it not uninhabitable in its current state?"
Varuna sighed and said, "The salt does leave this land barren, but seek out Vasuki, king of the snakes. He will be able to turn this into productive land."
Parashurama, confused but not wanting to question the wisdom of a god, found the Snake King and asked him for help. The king obliged and covered the new land with holy poison which converted the former ocean floor to a lush, productive soil.
Author's Note:
I had some trouble with this story. The last two stories were easy to do. The point was straightforward, and I felt that they fit the theme very well. When I sat down to write this story, I felt that I had lost the theme of the project and that now I was just grasping at straws trying to create something. I came across this myth while I was researching the flooding that happened in Kerala a couple years ago. I wanted to do a story on the modern floods and how they have really hurt Kerala. I really had a tough go at it. I decided to work with this story, one because it is interesting, and two because it at least incorporates water. I want to tie it into the next story where I will most likely talk about how Kerala was never raised out of the sea when it was created, so when enough water is dumped on it, the water has nowhere to go. Kerala is not actually below sea level, but it is still very prone to flooding because of its relative flatness (ignore the banner picture; it is not indicative of the topography), and abundance of rivers. Overall, I had a fun time creating this story, and I am glad I picked this topic. Also Parashu-rama means Axe-rama. So Parashurama is the Axe wielding Rama.
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