Back to Ayodhya

The journey back to Ayodhya was tedious. The path lay through thick woods at times and when they were out of the woods, they had to travel across stretches of deserts. As they were passing through woods, birds suddenly started hovering around them, making strange sounds, while herds of deer came out of nowhere, as it were and started walking alongside them, keeping to their left all the time. Dashratha saw this as an evil portent. The sages who were among their retinue said, “The birds forewarn us of some adversity whereas the herds of deer tell us that we are going to tide over the difficulty.”

Suddenly they were overtaken by a sandstorm. It leveled down the mighty trees. The sun disappeared behind a veil of darkness. None could see the path ahead or behind. The army was covered in dust and stood motionless. Only the king, the sages and the princes retained their senses. The rest of the retinue was covered in dust in that all-pervading darkness. Just then, Dashratha who was wakeful in that darkness, saw the ancient sage Parasurama emerge out of the clouds of dust, carrying a saber on one shoulder and a mighty bow on the other. While the ancient sage was still far away, Vasishtha had a quick consultation with the other sages. Everyone knew that Prashurama was a sworn enemy of the Kshatriya , the warrior race to which kings belonged. Prashurama was of the priestly class to which sages and priests belonged. Parashurama had vowed to avenge the death of his father at the hands of a Kshatriya. But the revenge was complete and was a thing of the past. And could be said with certainty that a pure Brahmin like Parashurama would not resort to killing again for no reason.

With this  in mind, the sages moved forward and greeted him. He accepted their greetings but turned straight to address Rama which filled Dashratha with fear and anxiety for Rama’s safety.

Parashurama, the son of sage Jamadagni, a Brahmin by birth, said to Rama, the son of king Dashratha, a Kshatriya by birth, “I’ve heard about your extraordinary conquest of the mighty bow of Shiva. It was miraculous and unthinkable. Listen, I have come with another equally mighty bow. Show me how you will stretch its string and get the arrow ready on it. If you succeed, I will challenge you to fight a duel with me which will give you an opportunity  to prove your mettle.”

Dashratha grew pale at this and pleaded with Parashurama to have mercy on his son. But ignoring him completely, Parashurama went on addressing Rama alone. He told him how those two bows belonged to Shiva and Vishnu and how the two gods fought each other on being provoked by other gods; how Shiva, angry over his defeat at the hands of Vishnu, handed his bow to king Devrata, an ancestor of Janaka and was now broken into two by Rama. The other bow was gifted by Lord Vishnu to Parashurama’s ancestor Richik.

Later Richik handed it down to Jamadagni, Parashurama’s father. Jamadagni who was well-versed in the art of weapons and missiles, renounced weapons and resorted to penance. While he was in a state of trance he was killed by a Kshatriya called Kartavirya. Insane with anger, Parashurama had exterminated Kshatriya s again and again and finally conquered the world. Having found peace then, he gave away the entire kingdom  of the world  to sage Kashyapa and retired to Mount Mahendra. Now once again he had come back to challenge a new representative of Kshatriya  in the person of Rama; first to master the bow of Vishnu in the same manner as he did the bow of Shiva; failing which Rama had to accept defeat, and if he won, fight a duel with Parashurama.

Rama listened attentively and cautiously. He understood the implicit deprecation of his warrior race. In spite of his reluctance to fight the hoary-headed sage he had to accept the challenge.

Without any sign of perturbation, he said, “We know you had a just cause to massacre Kshatriyas in the past. But there is no reason why you must take up cudgels against us now. If it is my pride which is at stake, let me affirm with due respect for your Brahmin descent that I will fight for the honor of my race.” Saying thus, he caught hold of the bow in Parashurama’s possession and stretching its string, placed the arrow on it, ready to be unstrung at any moment. With this act he deprived Parashurama as it were, of the divine power of Vishnu. That power now deserted Parashurama and was acquired by Rama now. Though vanquished, Parashurama felt honored by this well-deserved victory Rama had scored over him.

Vanquished, but peaceful, the sage went back to his abode in Mount Mahendra.