A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c9.18

c9.18

Paraśurāma slew his mother Reṇukā at the command of his father Jamadagni, and had to expiate this sin by undertaking to exterminate the Kshatriyas, enemies of the Brahmins. This he did in twenty-one expeditions, and then, at the instance of Viśvāmitra, gave the whole earth to the Brahmins. As he was thus left with nowhere to call his own where he could live, he sought Subrahmanya’s assistance and, by penance, obtained from Varuna, the god of the seas, some land to dwell on. Its extent was to be determined by a throw of his paraśu (axe). He threw it from Kanyākumārī to Gokarnam, which became the chief place in the land won from the sea, the land of Paraśurāma. To people this land, he imported Brahmins from abroad, settling them in sixty-four grāmas, and making laws and institutions for them and for other settlers who came at the same time. It may be noted that Kannada inscriptions of the early twelfth century A.D. outline the Paraśurāma story in relation to the creation of Konkan, the coastal strip to the north of Kerala.