Avatar of Parashuram is the deity Vishnu's sixth avatar or
incarnation.
The Parashuram avatar, like all of Vishnu's avatars, arrives
to restore cosmic equilibrium that has been pushed out of balance, in this
instance due to the warrior (kshatriya) class's overbearing misuse of power.
Parashuram is the son of Jamadagni, a brahmin sage whose
most prized possession is Surabhi, a cow capable of fulfilling any request.
The king visits Jamadagni's ashram when Parashuram is
abroad.
When he sees the cow, he wants it, and when Jamadagni
refuses, the king takes it by force.
When Parashuram discovers this, he gets enraged.
He fights the king with his parashu (or battle-axe, a weapon
that is particularly linked with him) and ultimately kills him.
When the king's sons continue to rebel against him,
Parashuram embarks on twenty-one treks throughout India, destroying all of the
ksha triyas he can discover in an attempt to eradicate them off the face of the
planet.
The conflict between the brahmin and kshatriya castes is a
key element in this novel, as are the reality of life in a society where brahmins
held religious authority but kshatriyas had enforcement power.
This narrative demonstrates a deep concern for the
sacredness of a brahmin's belongings, as well as the dangers of seizing them by
force.
The story's authors were almost likely brahmins, and their
warnings about the dangers of listening to a brahmin's pos sessions suggest a
lack of confidence in their capacity to control mental strength.
Parashuram appears in the epic Mahabharata as the guy who
teaches the heroic Karna the skill of weaponry and battle, in addition to the
account of exterminating the kshatriyas.
Parashuram is depicted in the epic as strong and irascible,
and as having such a deep loathing for kshatriyas that he refuses to accept
them as disciples.
When Parashuram realizes that Karna is a kshatriya, not a
brahmin as he said, he curses him, saying that he would forget all he has
learnt as his pupil in his hour of need.
