Parashurama Exterminates Kshatriyas Twenty-One Times
Enraged by his father’s murder, Parashurama slaughters the Haihaya king and then takes up his bow to cleanse the earth of the entire warrior caste, not once but twenty-one times.
The trigger was a father’s death. Jamadagni’s son, Parashurama — also called Rama — was angry when his father was killed. In that anger, the immensely illustrious one killed the king of the Haihayas. He sliced off the king’s thousand arms.
Then he again took up his bow, not to rest, but to conquer the world. Using his wonderful weapons, the great-souled descendant of Bhargava used his arrows to exterminate Kshatriyas from the world. He did not stop. He purged the earth of the warrior caste twenty-one times.
After this, Kshatriya women everywhere had offspring through Brahmanas who were self-controlled. The Vedas clearly say that a son so born belongs to the one who accepted the woman’s hand. With dharma in their minds, they united with the Brahmanas. The world thus saw the resurgence of the Kshatriyas, born anew from the ashes of a twenty-onefold vengeance.