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' In the jRig-veda, " the senseless, false, evil-speaking, unbelieving, unpraising, unworshipping Pawis were Dasyus or envious demons who used to steal cows and hide them in caverns. " They are said to have stolen the cows recovered by ASarama (q.v.). PANISTAGA. A serpent, snake. See Naga. PAPA-PURUSHA. ' Man of sin.' A personification of all wickedness in a human form, of which all the members are great sins. The head is brahmanicide, the arm cow-killing, the nose woman-murder, &c. PARADAS. A barbarous people dwelling in the north-west. Manu says they were Kshatriyas degraded to be /S'u.dras. PARAMAESHIS (Parama-rishis). The great i^ishis. See Rishi. PARAMATMAK The supreme soul of the universe. PARAMESHTHIK 'Who stands in the highest place.' A title applied to any superior god and to some distinguished mortals. A name used in the A'^edas for a son or a creation of Prajapati. PARA>S'ARA. A Yedic i^ishi to whom some hymns of the jRig-veda are attributed. He was a discij)le of Kapila, and he received the Vislwiu PuraTza from Pulastya and taught it to Maitreya. He was also a writer on Dharma-sastra, and texts of his are often cited in books on law. SiDcculations as to his era differ widely, from 575 B.C. to 1391 B.C., and cannot be trusted. By an amour with Satyavati he was father of Ki'ishTia DwaijDa- yana, the Yyasa or arranger of the Vedas. According to the Nirukta, he was son of Vasish/ha, but the Maha-bharata and the VisliTiu PuraTza make him the son of ♦S'aktri and gTandson of Vasish/ha. The legend of his birth, as given in the Maha-bharata, 230 PARASARA-PURANA—PARASU-RAMA, is tliat King Kalmaslia-ptida met with >Saktri in a narrow path, and desired him to get out of the w^av. The sage refused, and the Raja struck him with his whip. Thereupon the sage cursed the Raja so that he became a man-eating Eaksliasa. In this state he ate up ^Saktri, whose wife, Ad?"/5yant!, afterwards gave birtli to Parasara. A^'lien this chiki grew up and heard the particulars of his father's death, he instituted a sacrifice for the destruction of all the Rakshasas, but was dissuaded from its completion by Yasish/ha and other sages. As he desisted, he scattered the remaining sacrificial fire upon the northern face of the Himalaya, where it still blazes forth at the phases of the moon, consuming Rakshasas, forests, and mountains. PARA6'ARA-PURAiYA. See Purawa. PARA^S'IKAS. Parsikas or Farsikas, i.e., Persians. PARA6'U-RAMA. ' Rama with the axe.' The first Rama and the sixth Avatara of Vish?iu. He was a Brahman, the fifth son of Jamad-agni and ReTiuka. By his father's side he descended from Bh?-igu, and was, 'par excellence, the Bhargava; by his mother's side he belonged to the royal race of the Kusikas. He became manifest in the world at the beginning of the Treta- yuga, for the purpose of repressing the tyranny of the Kshatriya or regal caste. His story is told in the Maha-bharata and in the Pura72as. He also ap23ears in the Ramaya?za, but chiefly as an opponent of Rama-chandra. According to the Maha-bharata, he instructed Arjuna in the use of arms, and had a combat with ]>hlshma, in which both suffered equally. He is also represented as being present at the great war council of the Kaurara princes. This Para.su-rama, the sixth Avatara of Yishwu, appeared in the world before Rama or Rrima-chandra, the seventh Avatara, but they were both living at the same time, and the elder incar- nation showed some jealousy of the younger. The ]\Ialia-bliarata represents Parasu-rama as being struck senseless by Rama- chandra, and the Ramavawa relates how^ Parasu-rilma, who was a follower of /S'iva, felt aggrieved by Rama's breaking the bow of ^iva, and challenged him to a trial of strength. This ended in his defeat, and in some way led to his being " excluded from a seat in the celestial world." In early life Para.su-rama was under the protection of /Siva, who instructed him in the use of arms, and gave him the parasu, or axe, from which he is named. The first act recorded of him by the Maha-bhrirata is that, by PARASU-RAMA—PARIJATA. 231 command of liis fatlier, lie cut off the head of his mother, Re/mka. She had incensed her husband by entertaining impure tlioughts, and he called upon each of his sons in succession to kill her. Parasu-rama alone obeyed, and his readiness so pleased his father that he told him to ask a boon. He begged that his mother might be restored pure to life, and, for himself, that he might be invincible in single combat and enjoy lengtli of days. Para.su- rama's hostility to the Kshatriyas evidently indicates a severe struggle for the supremacy between them and the Bra-hmans. He is said to have cleared the earth of the Kshatriyas twenty- one times, and to have given the earth to the Brahmans. The origin of his hostility to the Kshatriyas is thus related : — Karta- vlrya, a Kshatriya, and king of the Haihayas, had a thousand arms. This king paid a visit to the hermitage of Jamad-agni in the absence of that sage, and was hospitably entertained by his wife, but when he departed he carried off a sacrificial calf be- longing to their host. This act so enraged Parasu-rama that he pursued Karta-vlrya, cut off his thousand arms and killed him. In retaliation the sons of Karta-virya killed Jamad-agni, and for that murder Parasu-rama vowed vengeance against them and the whole Kshatrij^a race. " Thrice seven times did he clear the earth of the Kshatriya caste, and he filled with their blood the five large lakes of Samanta-panchaka." He then gave the earth to Kasyapa, and retired to the Mahendra mountains, where he was visited by Arjuna. Tradition ascribes the origin of the country of Malabar to Parasu-rama. According to one account he received it as a gift from Yaru?za, and according to another he drove back the ocean and cut fissures in the Ghats with blows of his axe. He is said to have brought Brahmans into this country from the north, and to have bestowed the land upon them in expiation of the slaughter of the Kshatriyas. He bears the appellations Kha?2C?a-parasu, ' who strikes with the axe,' and Nyaksha, 'inferior.' PARAYASU. ^ee Raibhya and Yava-krita. PARIJATA. The tree produced at the churning of the ocean, " and the delight of the nymphs of heaven, perfuming the world with its blossoms." It was kept in Indra's heaven, and was the pride of his wife AS'achi, but when K?7"shwa visited Indra in Swarga, his wife Satya-bhama induced him to carry the tree away, which led to a great fight between the two gods and their adherents, in which Indra was defeated. The tree was taken to 232 PARIKSHIT—PARTHA. Dwaraka and planted there, but after Ivr/sh?ia's death it returned to Indra's heaven. PAKIKSHIT. Son of Abhimanyn by his wife Uttara, grandson of Arjuna, and father of Janamejaya. He was killed by Aswatthaman in the womb of his mother and was born dead, but he was brought to life by K?i'shrza, who blessed him and cursed A.swatthaman. "VVlien Yudhi-sh^hira retired from the world, Parikshit succeeded him on the throne of Hastina-pura. He died from the bite of a serpent, and the Bhagavata Pura7ia is represented as having been rehearsed to him in the interval between the bite and his death. Also written Parikshit. PARIPATRA. The northern part of the Yindhya range of mountains. According to the Hari-vansa, it was the scene of the combat between K?'ish?ia and Indra, and its heights sank down under the pressure of Iv?ish?2a's feet. Also called Pariyiitra. PARISHAD. A college or community of Bralimans asso- ciated for the study of the Vedas. PARI>S'ISHTA. A supplement or appendix. A series of works called Pari.sish/as belong to the Yedic period, but they are the last of the series, and indicate a transition state. They " supply information on theological or ceremonial points which had been passed over in the Sutras, and they treat everything in a popular and superficial manner, as if the time was gone when students would spend ten or twenty years of their lives in fathoming the mysteries and mastering the intricacies of the Erahma7ia literature." — Max Muller. PARIVRAJAKA. A religious mendicant. A Eriihman in the fourth stage of his religious life. See Brahman. PAR J ANY A. I. A Vedic deity, the rain-god or rain per- sonified. Three hymns in the i^ig-veda are addressed to this deity, and one of them is very poetical and picturesque in de- scribin^j rain and its effects.