ORIENTAL SERIES.

PARA S U-RAMA PARIJA TA. 231
command of his father, lie cut off the head of his mother, Kewuka.
She had incensed her husband by entertaining impure thoughts,
and he called upon each of his sons in succession to kill her.
Parasu-rama alone obeyed, and his readiness so pleased his father
that he told him to ask a boon. He begged that his mother
might be restored pure to life, and, for himself, that he might be
invincible in single combat and enjoy length of days. Parasu-^
rama's hostility to the Kshatriyas evidently indicates a severe
struggle for the supremacy between them and the Brahmans.
He is said to have cleared the earth of the Kshatriyas twentyone
times, and to have given the earth to the Brahmans. The
is thus related : Karta-
origin of his hostility to the Kshatriyas
virya, a Kshatriya, and king of the Haihayas, had a thousand
arms. This king paid a visit to the hermitage of Jamad-agni in
the absence of that sage, and was hospitably entertained by his
wife, but when he departed he carried off a sacrificial calf belonging
to their host. This act so enraged Parasu-rama that he
pursued Karta-virya, cut off his thousand arms and killed him.
In retaliation the sons of Karta-virya killed Jamad-agni, and for
that murder Parasu-rama vowed vengeance against them and the
whole Kshatriya race.
" Thrice seven times did he clear the \
earth of the Kshatriya caste, and he filled with their blood the j
five large lakes of Samanta-panchaka." He then gave the earth'
to Kasyapa, and retired to the Mahendra mountains, where he
was visited by Arjuna. Tradition ascribes the origin of the
country of Malabar to Parasu-rama, According to one account
he received it as a gift from Varuna, and according to another
he drove back the ocean and cut fissures in the Ghats with blows
of his axe. He is said to have brought Brahmans into this
country from the north, and to have bestowed the land upon
them in expiation of the slaughter of the Kshatriyas. He bears
'
the appellations Khaw^a-parasu, who strikes with the axe,' and
Nyakslia, '
inferior. 7
PARAVASU.
PABIJATA.
See Eaibhya and Yava-krita,
The tree produced at the churning of the
ocean, " and the delight of the nymphs of heaven, perfuming the
world with its blossoms." It was kept in Indra's heaven, and
was the pride of his wife $achi, but when Krishna visited Iixdra
in Swarga, his wite? Satya-bhama induced him to carry the tree
away, which led to a great fight between the two gods and their
adherents, in which Indra was defeated. The tree was taken to
'