also subdued
Rajputana and Central India and were dominant here for a time until
their extreme cruelty and oppression led to a concerted rising of the
Indian princes by whom they were defeated. The discovery of the Hun
or Scythian origin of several of the existing Rajput clans fits in
well with the legend. The stories told by many Indian castes of their
first ancestors having been Rajputs who escaped from the massacre
of Parasurama would then have some historical value as indicating
that the existing occupational grouping of castes dates from the
period of the revival of the Brahman cult after a long interval of
Buddhist supremacy. It is however an objection to the identification
of Parasurama with the Huns that he is the sixth incarnation of
Vishnu, coming before Rama and being mentioned in the Mahabharata,
and thus if he was in any way historical his proper date should be
long before their time. As to this it may be said that he might have
been interpolated or put back in date, as the Brahmans had a strong
interest in demonstrating the continuity of the Kshatriya caste from
Vedic times and suppressing the Hun episode, which indeed they have
succeeded in doing so well that the foreign origin of several of the
most prominent Rajput clans has only been established quite recently
by modern historical and archaeological research. The name Parasurama
signifies 'Rama with the axe' and seems to indicate that this hero came
after the original Rama. And the list of the incarnations of Vishnu
is not always the same, as in one list the incarnations are nearly
all of the animal type and neither Parasurama, Rama nor Krishna appear.

2. The legend of Parasurama

The legend of Parasurama is not altogether opposed to this view
in itself. [377] He was the son of a Brahman Muni or hermit,
named Jamadagni, by a lady, Renuka, of the Kshatriya caste. He is
therefore not held to have been a Brahman and neither was he a true
Kshatriya. This might portray the foreign origin of the Huns. Jamadagni
found his wife Renuka to be harbouring thoughts of conjugal infidelity,
and commanded his sons, one by one, to slay her. The four elder
ones successively refused, and being cursed by Jamadagni lost all
understanding and became as idiots; but the youngest, Parasurama,
at his father's bidding, struck off his mother's head with a blow of
his axe. Jamadagni thereupon was very pleased and promised to give
Parasurama whatever he might desire. On wh