ORIENTAL SERIES.

S 3 o PARASARA-PURANAFARASU-RAMA.
h tnat King Kalmasha-pada met with fiaktri in a narrow path,
and desired him to get out of the way. The sage refused, and the
Eaja struck him with his whip. Thereupon the sage cursed the
Eaja so that he hecame a man-eating Eakshasa. In this state
he ate up Saktri, whose wife, Admyanti, afterwards gave birth to
Parasara. When this child grew up and heard the particulars
of his father's death, he instituted a sacrifice for the destruction
of all the Eakshasas, but was dissuaded from its completion by
Yasishflia and other sages. As he desisted, he scattered the
remaining sacrificial fire upon the northern face of the Himalaya,
where it still blazes forth at the phases of the moon, consuming
and mountains.
Eakshasas, forests,
PAEASAEA-PTJEAJVA. See Puram
PAEA$IKAS. Parsikas or Farsikas, i.e., Persians,
Rama with the axe/ The first Eama
PAEAU-EAMA <
and the sixth Avatara of Vislinu. He was a Brahman, the fifth
son of Jamad-agni and Eemika. By his father's side he descended
from Bhrigu, and was, par excellence, the Bhargava; by his
mother's side he belonged to the royal race of the Knsikas. He
became manifest in the world at the beginning of the Treta-
yuga, for the purpose of repressing the tyranny of the Kshatriya
or regal caste. His story is told in the Maha-bharata and in the
Puranas. He also appears in the Eamayawa, but chiefly as an
opponent of Eama-chandra According to the Maha-bharata, he
instructed Arjuna in the use of arms, and had a combat with
Bhlshma, in which both suffered equally. He is also represented
as being present at the great war council of the Kaurava princes.
This Parasu-rama, the sixth Avatara of Vishnu, appeared in
the world before Eama or Eama-chandra, the seventh Avatara,
but they were both living at the same time, and the elder incar-
nation showed some jealousy of the younger. The Maha-bharata
represents Parasu-rama as being struck senseless by Eama-
chandra, and the Eamayawa relates how Parasu-rama, who was
a follower of Siva, felt aggrieved by Eama's breaking the bow
of /Siva, and challenged him to a trial of strength. This ended
in his defeat, and in some way led to his being " excluded from
a seat in the celestial world." In early life Para-su-rama was
under the protection of Siva, who instructed him in the use of
arms, and gave him the parasu, or axe, from which he is named,
The first act recorded of him by the Mahirbharata is that, bj