PARASU-RAMA, a Brahman, supposed to have lived n.c. 1176, who gave his name to an era, used still on the Malabar coast, from Mangalore to Cape Comorin. Ile was son of Jamadagni, a Brahman, and was apparently a village hero, but his name is associated with many fabulous Hindu legends. He was descended on his father's side from Bhrigu, and on his mother Renuka's side from the royal Kusika, and was born near Agra. Parasu Rama means Rama with the axe, and he was also called Khandu Parasu, who strikes with the axe, and is said to have 21 times overthrown his Kshatriya opponents, which would seem to indicate a prolonged contest for supremacy between the 13ralimanical and Kshatriya •races. He was a contemporary and an opponent of Rama Chandra, by whom he was overcome. his history is de tailed in the Mahabharata, Ramayaua, and Bliaga vat-Gita. He is fabled to have cut off his mother's head for some impropriety of her thoughts, but on his father offering him a boon for this, h liaised her to be restored to life, also that he might be invincible in single combat, and enjoy length of days. Ile is fabled to have taught Arjuna the
use of arms ; is also fabled to have flung his axe into the Arabian Sea, and thus to have re claimed the present Malabar, which he peopled from the north with the ancestors of the present Namburi Brahmans. Ile is said to have been a worshipper of Siva ; and the cause of his war with Rama was his anger with Rama for breaking Siva's bow. Hindus regard him as the sixth avatars of Vishnu, and his opponent Rama Chandra as the seventh. Rena*, the wife of the Rishi Jamadagni, and mother of Parasu-Rama, is said to be identical with the Gminma-deva Ellammen. The Parasu-Rama era in current on the Malabar coast. At the birth of Christ, 1176 years of the Parasu-Rama era had expired, and the 1177th year began on the 17th August A.D. 1, Julian style.—Gica, p. 86; As. Res. i. p. 426, iii. p. 68.