|| Tales from Indian Mythology – 4 ||
During Ravan’s time, there lived a king called Kartavirya Arjuna. He ruled the kingdom of Mahishmati. Having the desire to be a powerful monarch, Kartavirya performed rigorous penances for 10,000 years and pleased the spiritual ascetic Dattatreya. Dattatreya, pleased at Kartavirya’s devotion, granted several boons.
He granted Kartavirya the boon that no human, God, demon or demi God except Vishnu himself would be able to defeat Kartavirya. He also gave Kartavirya 1000 exceedingly, quick, powerful human arms, which could regenerate when cut off, appear and disappear at his will. Due to this, he was also sometimes called Sahasra Arjuna.
Kartavirya became empowered and conquered the world with all its continents. He defeated Karkotaka, the king of Nagas and made Mahishmati (near Narmada river) as his capital.
Asuras and Nagas and other creatures were afraid of the might of the king. Kartavirya could wield five hundred bows simultaneously and shoot five hundred arrows in one go.
He married thousands of beautiful princesses and enjoyed unbroken health, prosperity, strength, and valor. Kartavirya Arjuna ruled as the universal emperor for 85,000 years and during his reign, it is said that nobody was poor, nobody was miserable and there was no anarchy.
Once when Kartavirya was taking a bath in the river Narmada along with his wives, he reduced the force of the water with his thousand arms from both sides. Due to this, the upstream area started flooding. Young Ravan, who was praying to Shiva on the bank of the river, suddenly felt the water level rise around him.
Enraged that Kartavirya made him lose his concentration, he challenged the former for combat. In the combat that ensued, Kartavirya defeated Ravan and imprisoned him in Mahishmati. Then on request of his paternal grandfather Pulastya Rishi, the great Emperor Kartavirya Arjuna released Ravana and sent him home with gifts.
But Kartavirya’s might and invincibility soon got him arrogant and proud. He often used to remark that there was no one in seven worlds who could match him. He started to oppress subjects who would speak up, humiliate those who disagreed with him, including the Gods.
As karma would have it, he was to soon to get his due.
One day while hunting, Kartavirya and his army chanced upon sage Jamadagni’s hut. The sage graciously fed the King and his army with the help of his divine cow ‘Kamadhenu’. Kamadhenu is the magical cow that gives her caretaker bountiful of everything he needs.
The king demanded the cow for the betterment of his subjects. Jamadagni refused because he needed the cow for his religious ceremonies.
King Kartavirya Arjuna sent his soldiers to take the cow. The conflict became heated, Kartavirya lost his cool and chopped off the head of Jamadagni. He then seized Kamadhenu and took her to Mahishmati.
Parshuram had been out at that time. When he returned, he saw his father’s head lying on the ground. He was shocked. His mother Renuka told him what happened. Parshuram decided to take revenge on Kartavirya Arjuna.
Parashuram, regarded as an avatar of Vishnu, single-handedly wiped out Kartavirya’s army.
Kartavirya arrived in his divine golden chariot which could go anywhere unobstructed. He himself was a powerful archer, capable of simultaneously wielding five hundred arrows at a time. But the furious Parashurama broke Kartavirya’s bows, slew his horses and charioteer and destroyed the chariot.
Kartavirya hurled many weapons, rocks, and trees at Parashurama, but the sage parried all these. Parashurama hacked off Kartavirya’s thousand arms with his arrows and dismembered him with his battlefield axe.
So the invincible Kartavirya was killed and his whole clan was wiped out.
Earlier, during the peak of his power, Kartavirya is said to have angered Rishi Apava so much that he cursed Kartavirya saying, “May your exploits and achievements be bettered by another Arjuna. He will outshine your accomplishments!”. This was in reference to the future Pandava Arjuna, who would be more popularly remembered for his archery and battle skills, the same skills which Kartavirya Arjuna took so much pride in.
Thus was the downfall of a great emperor who lost himself in his own power and arrogance.
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