Jamadagni
Jamadagni | |
---|---|
Saptarishi | |
Weapon | Sharanga |
Texts | Mahabharata, Puranas |
Personal information | |
Parents | Richika (father), Satyavati (mother) |
Spouse | Renuka |
Children | Ṛumaṇvān, Suhotra, Vasu, Viśvāvasu, and Parashurama |
Jamadagni (
He is a descendant of the sage
Legend
Birth
According to the Bhagavata Purana, the sage Richika was asked by King Gadhi to bring a thousand white horses with black ears to marry Satyavati. Richika, with the help of Varuna, brought those horses and the king allowed Richika to marry Satyavati.
After their wedding, Satyavati, and her mother, demanded from Richika the blessings for having a son. Accordingly, the sage prepared two portions of milk boiled rice for each, one with the Brahma mantra (for Satyavati) and other with the Kṣātra mantra (for his mother-in-law). Giving the respective portions, he went to perform his ablutions. Meanwhile, Satyavati's mother asked her daughter to swap their portions. Her daughter obeyed. When Richika learned of this exchange, he said that the child born of his mother-in-law would be a great Brahmana, but that his son would become an aggressive warrior, who would bring a bloodbath to this world. Satyavati prayed to amend this outcome, so that her son would be born as the great Brahmana, but that her grandson would become the aggressive warrior. This resulted in Jamadagni being born as a sage (out of Satyavati's womb) and eventually, Parashurama being born as Jamadagni's son, a warrior with a fearful reputation.
Thus, Jamadagni was born to Richika and Satyavati.[3] Meanwhile, around the same time as Jamadagni's birth, Gadhi's wife (Satyavati's mother, whose name is not mentioned) gave birth to a son with Kshatriya traits, named Kaushika. He later becomes the renowned Vishvamitra, who was a Kshatriya by birth, but later ascended to the status of a Brahmarishi.[4]
Householder
Growing up, Jamadagni studied hard and achieved erudition in his studies of the Vedas. He is said to have acquired knowledge regarding the science of weapons without any formal instruction, with the guidance of his father. The Aushanasa Dhanurveda, now lost, is about a conversation between Jamadagni and Ushanas on the exercises of warfare.
After achieving the status of a rishi, Jamadagni visited a number of holy sites, and finally reached the palace of King Prasenajit of the Solar dynasty. He fell in love with his daughter, Princess Renuka, upon seeing her, and asked the king for her hand in marriage. Subsequently, the two were married, and had five sons: Ṛumaṇvān, Suhotra, Vasu, Viśvāvasu, and Rama, later known as Parshurama.[3][5][6] The couple started to engage in tapasya along the banks of the river Narmada.
He receives Sharanga, the celestial bow of Vishnu, from his father, Richika.
Death of Renuka
According to the Brahmanda Purana, Renuka once went to the banks of the river Narmada to fetch some water. There, she observed the king of the Salva kingdom playing with his queen in the water. She stood there, mesmerised by the beauty of the sight. By the time she reached the hermitage of her husband with the water, she was quite late. The weary Jamadagni was furious when he heard the reason for her delay, and called forth each of his sons, one after the other, to kill her. Each of them refused to kill their own mother. Parashurama, however, came forth, and beheaded his mother with a single arrow. The rishi exiled his four older sons to the forests due to their disobedience. Pleased by Parashurama's devotion to him, he granted his son any boon of his choice. Parashurama wished for his mother to be restored to life, and this was granted.[7]
Dharma's test
In the Ashvamedha Parva of the
Boons from Surya
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According to the
Death
Jamadagni was once visited by the
After a long wait, Renuka started to search for her husband, finding him almost dead, surrounded by a pool of his own blood. Renuka fainted at the sight, and when she returned to consciousness, started wailing. When Parashurama and his disciple, Akṛtavraṇa, found her, she turned to him, and beat her breast twenty-one times. Parashurama resolved that he would travel the world twenty-one times, and annihilate all the Kshatriya kings he could find.[10][11] When Jamadagni was to be cremated, the sage Shukra arrived on the scene, and restored the rishi's life with the Mṛtasañjīvanī mantra.
Parashurama and Akṛtavraṇa travelled to Māhiṣmatī, intending to bring Kamadhenu back home. At the gates of the city, they met Kartavirya Arjuna and his forces in battle, and slew them. They returned the divine cow to Jamadagni. The rishi instructed his son to perform a penance at Mahendragiri in order to cleanse himself of his sins. While Parashurama had left for this penance, Shurasena, a son of Kartavirya Arjuna, and his men, exacted their vengeance by beheading Jamadagni at his hermitage, and taking his head with them so that he could not be resurrected again. Parashurama and Jamadagni's disciples cremated the rishi, and his wife Renuka performed sati. Thence, Parashurama, inheriting his fallen father's Sharanga, started his twenty-one expeditions to obliterate the kings of the Kshatriya race.[7]
Buddhism
In the Buddhist
References
- ^ The Illustrated Weekly of India. Published for the proprietors, Bennett, Coleman & Company, Limited, at the Times of India Press. 1975. p. 11.
- ISBN 0-486-20150-3, p. xli: The Rishi are seers who know, and by their knowledge are the makers of shastra and "see" all mantras. The word comes from the root rish Rishati-prāpnoti sarvvang mantrang jnānena pashyati sangsārapārangvā, etc. The seven great Rishi or saptarshiof the first manvantara are Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulaha, Kratu, Pulastya, and Vashishtha. In other manvantara there are other sapta-rshi. In the present manvantara the seven are Kashyapa, Atri, Vashishtha, Vishvamitra, Gautama, Jamdagnini, Bharadvaja. To the Rishi the Vedas were revealed. Vyasa taught the Rigveda so revealed to Paila, the Yajurveda to Vaishampayana, the Samaveda to Jaimini, Atharvaveda to Samantu, and Itihasa and Purana to Suta. The three chief classes of Rishi are the Brahmarshi, born of the mind of Brahma, the Devarshi of lower rank, and Rajarshi or Kings who became Rishis through their knowledge and austerities, such as Janaka, Ritaparna, etc. Thc Shrutarshi are makers of Shastras, as Sushruta. The Kandarshi are of the Karmakanda, such as Jaimini.
- ^ ISBN 978-81-7755-874-6.
- ^ Bhagavata Purana Skandha 9 chapter 15-16
- ISBN 978-1-57607-106-9.
- ISBN 978-0-226-06456-7.
- ^ a b www.wisdomlib.org (28 January 2019). "Story of Jamadagni". www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
- ISBN 978-81-208-0597-2.
- ^ "The Mahabharata, Book 13: Anusasana Parva: Section XCVI".
- ISBN 978-0-8239-2287-1.
- ISBN 978-81-208-0597-2.
- ^ P. 494 The Pali–English dictionary, Thomas William Rhys Davids, William Stede
- ^ P. 245 The Vinaya piṭakaṃ: one of the principle Buddhist holy scriptures ..., Volume 1 edited by Hermann Oldenberg
- ^ The Vinaya Pitaka's section Anguttara Nikaya: Panchaka Nipata, p. 44 The legends and theories of the Buddhists, compared with history and science, Robert Spence Hardy