Rama is referred to Parashurama who is considered as the sixth Avatara of Vishnu. Parashurama is also known as Rama of the Axe. He belongs to the period of the first struggle between the Brahmans and the Kshatriyas, the hierarchy and the government.

Rama or Parashurama is said to have been the son of a certain Muni called Jamadagni. As his mother Kenuka, belonged to the Kshatriya caste. The myth relates that the princess, his mother, having committed a sin, his father commanded his sons to put her to death. All refused to kill his mother except Rama, the youngest, who seized his axe and felled her to the ground. In reward for his triumph of duty over feeling he received the gift of invincibility. Rama or Parashurama was bestowed with the power of being both physically and mentally strong. He was impossible to be defeated by anyone.

Kartavirya, king of the Haiheyas, coveted the divine cow Kamadhenu which belonged to the Muni, and took it from him by force. When Rama or Parashurama was on his visit to Jamadagni, he went forth to recover the cow, and soon killed the robber king. The sons of Kartavirya, to avenge their father death, attacked the hermitage of Jamadagni, when Rama was away.

The sons of Kartavirya killed Jamadagni, a pious and docile sage. His father called for aid but vain. Rama returned to lament his father`s unmerited fate, and having lighted his funeral pile, vowed that he would extirpate the whole Kshatriya race. In the Mahabharata it is said that several times Rama destroyed the Kshatriya caste.

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