The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2

Parashu
500
The god Vishnu’s Parashuram avatar, carrying his
battle-axe. He appears in this form to punish the
warrior class’ abuse of power.
Parashu
(“battle-axe”) A characteristic object in
Hindu iconography, and one that
appears in various forms—sometimes
with a very light, thin handle and a larger
head, at other times with a handle the
size of a club (gada) and a very small,
thin head. This weapon has the
strongest mythic associations with
Vishnu’s sixth avatar or incarnation,
Parashuram, who uses it in his war of
extermination against the the ruling
kshatriya class when their pride has
grown too strong. The battle-axe is also
commonly carried by the god Ganesh
and signifies his power to cut through
obstacles and impediments. It also commonly
appears in various images of the
deities Shiva, Vishnu, and the Goddess,
as one among their galaxy of weapons.
Parashuram Avatar
Sixth avatar or incarnation of the god
Vishnu. As with all the avatars of Vishnu,
the Parashuram avatar comes to restore
a cosmic equilibrium that has been
thrown out of balance, in this case from
the overweening abuse of power by the
warrior (kshatriya) class. Parashuram is
the son of Jamadagni, a brahmin sage
whose most precious possession is
Surabhi, a cow that will grant its owner
any desired wish. One day when
Parashuram is away, the king comes to
Jamadagni’s ashram. When he sees the
cow, he desires it, and when Jamadagni
refuses to give it to him, the king takes it
by force.
When Parashuram learns of this, he
becomes fiercely angry. Taking up his
parashu (or battle-axe, a weapon particularly
associated with him), he enters
into battle with the king and eventually
kills him. When the king’s sons remain
rebellious in opposition to him,
Parashuram makes twenty-one journeys
around India, destroying all of the kshatriyas
that he can find, in an effort to
wipe them from the face of the earth.
The major theme of this story is the conflict
between the brahmin and kshatriya
classes, and the realities of living in a
society in which brahmins had religious
authority but kshatriyas had the power
of enforcement. This story reveals a
strong concern for the sanctity of a
brahmin’s possessions and highlights
the perils of taking them by force. The
writers behind the story were almost
certainly brahmins, and their remarks
on the perils of taking a brahmin’s possessions
doubtless reflect an insecurity
about their ability to supersede governmental
power.
In addition to the story of exterminating
the kshatriyas, Parashuram
appears in the epic Mahabharata as the
person who teaches the heroic Karna
the art of weapons and warfare. The epic
portrays Parashuram as powerful and
irascible, and as possessing such continuing
hatred of kshatriyas that he refuses
to take them as students. When
Parashuram discovers that Karna is a
kshatriya and not a brahmin, as he
has claimed to be, he lays a curse on
Karna that, in his hour of greatest