Purushram was born a Brahman but with the temperament of a warrior. He came into the world because by that time the Kshatriyas were holding sway as they were the acknowledged class who were the warriors and kings. They seem to have forgotten the respect due to the learned ones or the teachers — the Brahmans and the rishis. There seems to have been too much arrogance in the warrior class and they flaunted the rules of the Vedas in governing.
One such king was Kartarviryarjuna who ruled ‘Hekaya’ and was known for his strength and power. He was invincible. He even insulted Ravan. Who was camping on the river Narmada where Arjuna was bathing with his women. He was so strong that he was reputed to have one thousand arms and with them he blocked the river, which rose and wetted Ravan’s tent.
Ravan was very upset and angry but Kartarvirya captured him and made him the laughing stock of the women. He made Ravan a prisoner in his city of ‘Mahishmati’ and only released him after insulting him. This itself spoke badly of a ruling king in whose kingdom another king had come as a guest.
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Then again while hunting in the forest he came to the Ashram of Jamadagni and the rishi entertained him and his entourage with the help of ‘Kamadhenu’, the divine cow. Kartarvirya became jealous of Jamadagni and asked his soldiers to steal the cow. The cow was taken crying piteously to the capital of Hekaya — Mahishmati.
At that very time the youngest son of Jamadagni came to his father’s Ashram and on hearing of the stealing of the cow, he became extremely angry, he was Purushram — the sixth avtar of Vishnu who had come to clear the earth of the arrogant Kshatriyas. He fought Arjuna and his whole army and destroyed them. He killed Kartarviryarjuna whose one thousand sons ran away to their capital. Jamadagni was very upset at his son having killed an anointed king, who was supposed to be God for the people he ruled.
Brahmin should not kill, but have the power of patience which makes him respected by all the people. He advised his son to go on a pilgrimage to the holy rivers and wash off the sin incurred by him. Ram obeyed his father and went (Purushram was also called Ram — Rama with the axe).
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Ram had come back from his pilgrimage and was welcomed by his parents with great affection. Once Renuka his mother went to the river for water and saw the heavenly gandharva Chitrasen frolicking in the water with his apsaras and was quite taken in by his beauty.
She stayed on longer watching the handsome man. She was late in coming home and when eventually she came, her husband who knew from his mind’s eye as to what had delayed her got very angry and asked his four sons to kill her but they were hesitant and so he called out his youngest son Parshuram to come and do so.
Rama without a moment’s hesitation killed his mother and his four brothers. The father was very pleased with him for obeying his command without hesitation and asked him to ask for anything he so desired. Ram asked him to bring them all back to life and erase the memory of his killing them from their memory forever. So it was, and everyone was happy.
The sons of Kartarvirya were seething with anger at their father’s death — once when the four sons had gone to the forest, the sons of Arjuna came and killed Jamadagni as he was meditating. Renuka shouted in agony to Ram to come and help. Ram came running to the ashram and seeing what had happened just took his axe and putting it on his shoulder decided to teach all the Kshatriyas a lesson.
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He wanted to destroy all of them and went twenty-one times round the world and killed so many kings and their warriors that five lakes were filled with blood. He had come to remove evil that had crept in the system of good living and pious living and was an ‘avtar’ although the other Ram of Ayudhya was also alive and we have two avtars of Vishnu at the same time, but it is strangely also mentioned that Purushram will be one of the seven rishis in the next Manvantra.
After an argument with Laxman in Janak Court during Sita’s Sawyamber when Ram broke the bow of Shiva- Purushram understood that Shri Ram was also the ‘avtar’ of Vishnu. He went away from there and threw his axe into the sea — Kerala is said to have risen from where the axe fell.
Vishnu in the garb of Purushram had come to set the warrior class right and teach them how to behave as kings and warriors but He was an angry and hot-tempered ‘incarnation’ due probably because at the time when the kings and subjects did not quite know how to behave with each other.
Society was very raw on this earth and force seems to have been the keyword to bring others to obey, but He gave way to ‘Ram Avtar’ to teach the people the correct way of behaviour in a peaceful and loving manner.