The Parshurama avataar is the sixth dashaavatar of Lord Vishnu. He is said to be the first Brahmin & Khatriya combination and hence is called a warrior-saint. Sage Parshurama was known to be an angry and aggressive saint. He hails from the Bhargava clan and is the son of the great sage Jamadagni and Mata Renuka. Parshurama was a great devotee of Lord Shiva and he was gifted a divine axe by Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva also taught Parshurama the art of war.

There is a famous legend where King Kartavirya Arjun and his army arrived at Sage Jamadagni’s ashram and as they were very hungry and tired, the sage fed the entire army alongwith the King by using the magical powers of his divine cow, Kamadhenu. The greedy king snatched the cow and took it with him to his palace. This infuriated Parshurama who punished the king by killing him and his army. The sons of King Kartavirya killed Jamadagni as revenge. That is when Parashurama swore to kill every Kshatriya on earth until he was calmed by his grandfather.

There are many myths associated with Parshurama. One legend of how Lord Ganesha lost a part of his tusk to Parshurama’s anger. It is said that the great Sage once went to meet Lord Shiva, but was stopped at the entrance. This enraged the warrior-sage and in his anger, he threw the axe at Lord Ganesha. As Lord Ganesha knew that the axe was gifted by his father- Lord Shiva, Ganesha allowed the axe to cut away one of his tusks.

There is another myth which talks about Parshurama giving the powerful Sudharshan Chakra to Lord Krishna.

Another mythological story says that Parshurama is still alive and will be the Guru of Kalki, who is the 10th avataar of Lord Vishnu and who has not yet arrived