Devalok
Legend · 2 tellings · South India

Parashurama raises Kerala from the sea

Parashurama, having given the whole earth away, stands on the Western Ghats and throws his axe into the ocean; Varuna draws the water back as far as it flew, and the coast from Gokarna to Kanyakumari rises, which he settles with brahmins brought from the north.

Who is in it

Places: Kerala, Gokarna, Mount Mahendra · Texts: Brahmanda Purana, Keralolpathi

The story, beat by beat

  1. Parashurama has given the earth to Kashyapa and has nowhere of his own (or the sea has swallowed Gokarna).
  2. He goes to the shore and calls on Varuna, who does not come until Parashurama takes up his weapons.
  3. He throws his axe (or a winnowing basket, or an arrow) and the sea retreats as far as it falls.
  4. The land between the mountains and the sea is Kerala, Parashurama's land, from Gokarna to Kanyakumari.
  5. He brings brahmins from the north; the first flee the serpents; he brings more and gives the land its rites and temples.

land sea settlement origin

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Encyclopedia

Keralolpathi and the axe

South India · Kerala and Tulunadu All traditions

The Kerala chronicle begins with the axe. Parashurama, his killing done and the earth given away, stands on the Sahyadri, the Western Ghats, faces the ocean, and throws his axe as far as he can. The waters go back to where it falls and a long strip of land comes up between the mountains and the waves, from Gokarna to Kanyakumari. He brings brahmins from the north and settles them in sixty-four villages, thirty-two of them in Kerala. They are frightened of the serpents who already live there and go home; he fetches a second group, and changes their hair and dress so that the north will not take them back. He founds a hundred and eight temples and gives the land its rites.

Keralolpathi (Wikipedia); Parashurama and the coast that rose from the sea (Say Solmelu)

Encyclopedia

Brahmanda Purana, the winnowing basket

South India · Gokarna and the western coast All traditions

In the Brahmanda Purana's telling the land was there before and the sea took it. When Ganga came down to earth her flood ran to the western sea and drowned the holy place of Gokarna. Its hermits climbed to Mahendra and told Parashurama. He went to the shore and called on Varuna, who did not come; he stood in meditation until his weapons came into his hands, and Varuna came in fear and agreed to give the land back. Parashurama sent the weapons away and threw a winnowing basket, a shurpa, over the water, and the sea retreated to where it fell. The land is called Shurparaka. The Mahabharata has a third reason: Kashyapa, given the earth, asked its giver to leave it, so he shot an arrow into the sea and made land for himself.

Story of Kerala, in Vettam Mani's Puranic Encyclopaedia (wisdomlib)

Sources: Keralolpathi (Wikipedia); Parashurama and the coast that rose from the sea (Say Solmelu); Story of Kerala, in Vettam Mani's Puranic Encyclopaedia (wisdomlib)

More stories with the same people

Legend

Kalki and the princess of Simhala

In the late Kalki Purana, Kalki learns from Parashurama, receives a horse, a sword and a talking parrot from Shiva, and through the parrot finds Padmavati of Simhala, whose every suitor turns into a woman; he marries her and the cursed kings become men again.
From the epics

Parashurama and his mother Renuka

Renuka, sent for water, lingers watching the gandharva king Chitraratha on the river. Her husband Jamadagni orders his sons to kill her; the four elder sons refuse and are cursed; the youngest, Rama, strikes off her head with his axe, and asks as his reward that she live again and remember nothing.
From the epics

Parashurama and the thousand-armed king

The thousand-armed king Kartavirya Arjuna takes Jamadagni's cow; Parashurama cuts off his arms and kills him; the king's sons kill Jamadagni in his hermitage; Parashurama clears the earth of its warrior kings again and again, fills lakes with their blood at Samantapanchaka, gives the earth away and goes to Mount Mahendra.
From the epics

Karna and the curse of his guru

Karna, refused by Drona, goes to Parashurama pretending to be a brahmin and learns the Brahma weapon. When a worm bores his thigh while his teacher sleeps on his lap and he does not flinch, Parashurama knows he is no brahmin and curses him to forget the weapon when he needs it most.
From the epics

Rama breaks Shiva's bow

At Janaka's court in Mithila no king can lift the bow of Shiva that is Sita's bride-price; the young Rama lifts it, strings it and breaks it in two, and wins Sita. Tulsidas sets it at a crowded contest, and brings in Parashurama, furious at the sound.
Temple legend

Shiva under the banyan at Thrissur

Parashurama asks Varuna for land and the sea draws back to make Kerala.
Temple legend

Two origins of Padmanabhaswamy

Either Parashurama consecrated the reclining image, or Vishnu appeared to the sage Vilwamangalam as a mischievous boy and became a falling tree that took the shape of Ananta Padmanabha.
Origin

The goddess from the fire

A demon made from Kama's ashes takes half the strength of any foe; the gods offer their bodies to a great fire, Lalita rises from the light, and she chooses Kameshvara with a garland.