Parasurama

Parashurama
Lithograph by Raja Ravi Varma depicting Parashurama with his axe
Devanagari	परशुराम
Sanskrit transliteration	Paraśurāma
Affiliation	God and sixth avatar of Vishnu
Abode	Mahendragiri, Odisha
Weapon	Axe (paraśu), Vijaya, Bhargavastra
Parents	Jamadagni (father) Renuka (mother)

Parashurama (Sanskrit: परशुराम IAST: Paraśurāma, lit. Rama with an axe) is the sixth avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism. He is the son of Renuka and one of the saptarishis, Jamadagni. He lived during the last Treta and Dvapara Yugas and is one of the Chiranjivi (immortals) of Hinduism. Parashurama, a Brahmin, received his famous axe after undertaking terrible penance to please Shiva, who in turn taught him Kalaripayattu (the mother of all martial arts).

Parashurama is most known for ridding the world of kshatriyas twenty-one times over after the mighty king Kartavirya Arjuna, not the famous one of Mahabharata, killed his father. As per the Mahabharata, Parashurama single-handedly successfully conquered the entire world and killed crores of kshatriyas. Parashurama conducted hundreds of Ashvamedhas and gave away the entire earth he conquered as alms to sage Kashyapa. He plays important roles in the Mahabharata and Ramayana, serving as mentor to Bhishma, Drona and Karna.

Parashurama and Indrajit (Ravana's son) are believed to be the only humans who ever possessed the three ultimate weapons: the Brahmanda astra, Vaishnava astra and Pashupatastra. Parashurama was a disciple of Shiva and learned the scriptures and the arts of warfare from Shiva. He then acquired celestial weapons from Shiva and the other gods on Shiva's instructions. Shiva personally trained Parashurama for decades in the art of warfare.The Bhargavastra was his personal celestial weapon and vijaya was his personal bow which was gifted by Shiva. Parashurama also fought back the advancing seas to save the lands of Konkan and Kerala.