Caste and Race in India c7.138

c7.138

The Brahmins, as if not being content with showing the superiority of Brahmanic lustre over martial prowess, created in Paraśurāma, a Brahmin, who overpowered the Kshatriyas not by the usual Brahmanic weapon of spiritual force, but by their own military weapons. Paraśurāma is the champion of the Brahmins and avenges his father's murder on the Kshatriyas. He is represented as having destroyed the Kshatriya race in twenty-one campaigns. Though he wrests the control of the earth from the hands of the Kshatriyas, he is not prepared to rule over it. Everywhere chaos ensues, and the need for the strong arm to govern the people is keenly felt. According to one version of the story, on the retirement of Paraśurāma some of the Kshatriyas, who had stealthily escaped him, were encouraged to multiply and rule. According to another account, the Kshatriyas of the post-Paraśurāma age were all a mixed progeny of Kshatriya females and Brahmin males.¹ Two of the most skilled of the Kshatriya heroes of the Mahābhārata, namely, Bhīshma and Karṇa, were reputed to be the most favourite disciples of Paraśurāma, the Brahmin teacher of the Kshatriya’s art. It is clear that the story of Paraśurāma owed its origin—and there are many discrepancies in this story to prove this contention—mainly to the desire of the Brahmins: first, to show that the Brahmin’s wrong would not remain unavenged; second, to impress the fact that the Brahmins, if they took to arms, would prove themselves immensely superior to the Kshatriyas in warfare and last, to humiliate the Kshatriyas.