Kartavirya

Yudhishthira is tormented: brahmanas have followed him into exile, but he has nothing to give them. He cannot abandon them, yet he cannot sustain them. He goes to his priest Dhoumya and asks what the right course of action is.

King Kartavirya, drunk on battle, arrives at the hermitage when the sons are away. He rejects the rishi's wife's homage, destroys the hermitage, and steals the sacrificial cow's calf. When Rama returns and learns what happened, he rushes at Kartavirya in fury and slices off his one thousand arms with sharp arrows. But Kartavirya's sons, seeking revenge, attack the hermitage when Rama is absent — and kill the defenseless Jamadagni.

Rama Jamadagnya, after performing his father's funereal rites, swears to destroy every kshatriya on earth. Alone, like the god of death, he kills Kartavirya's sons and all their followers — then purges the earth of kshatriyas twenty-one times, building five lakes of blood at Samantapanchaka before Richika himself appears to restrain him.