PLACES OF INTEREST

PEDHE OR PARSHRAM

Pedhe or Parshram (Chiplun T.; 17° 30' N, 73° 30' E; p. 1970), is a village on the north bank of the Vasishthi opposite Chiplun and the island and fort of Goval The nearest railway station is Karad, about 55 miles to the south-east. On a high hill slope commanding a fine view of the river and close to the provincial road from Chiplun to Khed and Poladpur, the village is celebrated as the seat of the ancient shrine of the Konkan reclaimer Parashuram, and as the traditional birth-place of Chitpavan Brahmans, whose headquarters lie in the tract round Dapoli, Khed and Chiplun. [Of the Chitpavans, details are given in Chapter III.]

Before the time of Parashuram, so runs the story, the sea washed the Sahyadri cliffs, Parashuram, who was a Brahman subdued the Ksha-triyas and gave away all the lands above the Sahyadris, by shooting an arrow out to sea and reclaimed the Konkan for his own use. [The story of Parashuram is that he was the son of the Brahman sage Jamadagni. Parashuram's mother and the wife of the great Kshatriya king, Sahasrarjun, were sisters. The sage Jamadagni was poor, and his wife was forced to do all the household duties with her own hands. One day, fetching water, she thought of her sister's grandeur and her own poverty. As she was thus thinking the pitcher became empty. The sage asked her why her pitcher was empty, and when she told him how the water had leaked away, he blamed her for thinking her sister's state better than her own. She said; ' If I want to ask my sister there is hardly food for ten men '. ' I have ' the sage replied, ' food for ten thousand, but I do not think it wise to call a Kshatriya to dinner'. She pleaded that they should be asked, and her sister and her husband came with a large following. From his wish-fulfilling cow and never empty jar the sage satisfied the king and all his men. Learning the source of the sage's store of food, the king carried off the cow and the jar, and killed the sage, forcing him to lie on a bed of pointed nails. Grieved with the result of her foolishness the sage's wife committed suicide. Thus orphaned Parashuram vowed vengeance on the Kshatriyas. Attacking than with his axe, Parashu, he broke their power, slew all who did not forfeit their birthright by mixing with the Shudras, and gave the whole of their lands to Brahmans. Finding that he had left no land for himself, he prayed the sea, which then washed the Sahyadri cliffs, to cast him up a kingdom. The sea refused and Parashuram determined to drive it back. Standing on the Sahyadris he shot an arrow westward and before it the sea retired. But the sea-God had sent a friendly bee to bore Parashuram's bow-string, and the arrow fell short reclaiming only a strip about forty miles broad.] The chief temple, dedicated to Bhargavram or Parashuram, is a central shrine surrounded by two smaller buildings. At the back of the enclosure is a reservoir called in honour of Parashuram's shooting the arrow spring, ban ganga. The temple, with a yearly income of about Rs. 2,500 from cash allowances and the revenues of three villages, is visited by many pilgrims on their way from Banaras, Dvarka and other sacred places to the shrine of Rameshvara in the extreme south. Every morning the idol is bathed and dressed. A yearly festival on the third day of the first fortnight of Vaishakh (April-May) is attended by more than a thousand people.

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