A Battle of Legends: Parashurama and Bhishma

Parasuram is the guru of Vishma but they were in an epic battle which was caused by certain reasons. So why did these two warriors fight each other? Mythology tells us about this epic tale. 

Vishma:

Vishma means terrible and he was the supreme commander of the Kaurava forces during the Kurukshetra War which was described in the epic Mahabharata. His was originally named Devavratha and he is the eighth son of King Shantanu and his wife Goddess Ganga. 

When Shantanu wanted to marry Satyavati, her father expressed that he could not bless their marriage as he was afraid that their descendants would never be able to become king because Devavratha was his eldest son. 

This caused Devavratha to take the Vishma Pratigya (or terrible oath) of lifelong celibacy. This is an important turn of events as this oath is one of the main factors for the war between the Pandavas and Kauravas in Kurukshetra. In return, Vishma got a boon of Ichcha Mrityu (control over his own death).

Parasuram:

Parasuram is the sixth avatar among the Dashavatara of the preserver god Vishnu. He plays important roles in the Mahabharata serving as mentor to Vishma. He is known to teach weapon arts and help key warriors on both sides of the war.

He was born to Jamadagni and Renuka. According to the legends, Parashurama was foretold to appear at a time when overwhelming evil prevailed on the earth. He has been mentioned in several mythological texts and is married to Dharani, an incarnation of Lakshmi.

Why did Vishma and Parasuram fight?

Vishma had two stepbrothers, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. He was on a journey to find a suitable bride for Vichitravirya when the King of Kashi arranged for a Swayamvara for his daughters Amba, Ambika, and Ambilika. However, no invitation was sent to Vichitravirya, which highly offended Vishma.

In his rage, he went to Kashi and kidnapped all the three princesses. Amba told him that she was in love with Salwa (Shalva), the ruler of Saubala, so Vishma sent her to him. However, she gets rejected by both Salwa and Vichitravirya. As a result, she urges Vishma to take responsibility for her as his wife. Vishma rejects this demand citing his vow of lifelong celibacy. 

This angers Amba as her life is ruined since Vishma kidnapped her. She goes to Parasuram who is known to be one of the most fierce warriors and sage. However, he refuses to take action because Vishma is his student and he has vowed to not take up arms against anyone except for those who are acquainted with the knowledge of Vedas.

Akritavana reminds Parasuran that he also vowed not to abandon anyone who came to him for help and this enables the fight between the two warriors. Parasuram asks Vishma to take responsibility but he does not budge from his vow of celibacy. 

This kickstarts the battle between the two on Kurukshetra, the future site of the Mahabharata war. They both used equal power and neutralized each other’s weapons. While Vishma uses weapons like Vayavya and Agneya, Parasuram neutralizes these with his weapons like Guhyaka and Varuna.

The fight between the two lasted for 23 days. Vishma had been unable to defeat Parasuram even after using all his weapons. He prayed to the gods to help him and show him the path to victory. Gods come to him in his dream and give him the knowledge of the weapon called Praswapa or Prashwapastra. 

This weapon can make Parasuram fall asleep and then Vishma can defeat him and wake him up using another weapon called Samvodhana. However, when he tries to use the Prashwapastra against Parasuram, Narada comes to stop the fight. Parasuram is also approached by the spirits of his ancestors, who similarly told him to stop fighting. He agreed to put down his weapons and surrender to Vishma. 

Amba still wanted her revenge so she prayed to Shiva, who appeared and told her that in her next life, she would be able to kill Vishma. She was reborn as Draupadi’s sister Shikhandini and attained gender change to become Shikhandi, who was instrumental in Vishma’s death.