Rishi Jamadagni

INTRODUCTION :

Jamadagni  is one of the Saptarishis, and he is the father of Lord Parashurama, the avatar of Lord Vishnu. Jamadagni had five children and his wife was Mata Renuka Devi, and after her death, she is worshiped as an incarnation of Goddess parvati, in various names and in various temples, like Yellamma in Karnataka, Manchalamma in Mantralayam,   Andhra Pradesh. Rishi Jamadagni was well versed in handling weapons and he is a master in all kinds of art, and also well versed in vedic texts, puranas and other sacred hindu texts. His ancestor was sage Bhrigu. Jamadagni name is also mentioned in Buddhist texts. He was also regarded as a great rishi, who provided food to his guests through his divine cow, kamadhenu.

IMPORTANCE :

According to the epic Mahabharata, Jamadagni was once without able to tolerate the heat caused by the sun god, shot several arrows into the sky. The sun god then appeared and gave him sandals and an umbrella, and asked him to use it, whenever he gets disturbed from the heat caused from the sun rays. He got such a great power, which he attained it through his devotion to god and meditation. Once his wife, Mata Renuka just had a glance of the beauty of the Gandharvas who were flying in the sky. Through his yogic powers, Jamadagni had known about the incident and got angry with his wife and asked parasurama to cut her head. Parashurama beheaded his mother with an axe. He immediately asked his father to give back life to his mother. And Renuka devi was brought back to life.

Once the king Kartaviryarjuna wants the divine cow kamadhenu and forcefully stolen the cow from Jamadagni. After knowing about the incident, Parasurama fought with Kartaviryajuna and killed him, and took back the divine cow to his possession. Knowing about the death of their father, the king’s sons killed sage Jamadagni, as revenge. Later parasurama killed the sons of Kartaviryajuna, and also killed several Kshatriya kings as revenge towards his father’s death. After some time, his mother also died due to the death of her husband Jamadagni, and became a goddess, and is still worshipped as a village guardian deity by the people in different parts of india. It is also believed that the son of Jamadagni, the great parasurama, is still living as a chiranjeevi in the Himalayan mountain ranges and doing penance on Lord Shiva. Let us worship the great sage Jamadagni and be blessed.

“OM SREE RISHI JAMADAGNIYE NAMAHA”
“OM MATA RENUKA DEVIYE NAMAHA”
“OM SREE PARASURAMARE NAMAHA”

SENT BY

R.HARISHANKAR