Legend of Parshu-ram

While the detailed book review is available on our website, here is the summarized one.Dr. Vineet Aggrawal, a famous author who started his career as an author by writing a book about Vishwamitra, came with a detailed book on Parshuram.The plot of this book has its root in the book about Vishwamitra, however, don't worry if you haven't read it yet. The book is complete in itself and you can enjoy reading it without missing any important detail.The Plot:Let us take a bird's eye view to the plot of the book where I will try to keep most of the spoilers at the bay, but some of them are unavoidable :).It all stars with the actions of Ruchik, the descendant of Bhrigu who feel disheartened by the actions of his wife Satyavati and her mother, as decided to leave the domestic life. He leaves everything in a moment, including his newborn, and went to the Himalayas to complete his spiritual journey.The Karma is a great leveler and one has to fulfill all his/her duties, and thus, the circumstances took the turn and Ruchik has to come back into the lives of his wife Satyavati and son Yamadagni (aka Jamadagni)!Arjun is one of the great rulers of Nabhivarsh and he followed the path of Dharma. With the able guidance of his father and immense warrior skills of his own, he went ahead to have some of the most remarkable political alliances and fought some great wars, all to establish the kingdom of Dharma all over the earth. He was almost successful in his efforts.Almost, because, there are tribes, which want to keep following their own way of ruling and don't care much about the ideal practices advised by the Dharma. And some of the most cunning minds and brave fighters were there at their side also. Adding to them was Ravana, the rising figure in Asura tribe who is of mixed origin and possessor of the good qualities of both the clans.Why, Arjun, the ferocious warrior, better known as Sahatrarjun, then is considered as the one who did some wrong stuffs? Why he is killed by Raam (who became Parshuram by then)? And why Raam started a series of wiping out the Kshatryia rulers who were not following the path of Dharma? The sequence of actions and their reactions, are better to explore by reading this book.Views and Reviews:The book is written in a gripping manner and is a delight for the lovers of Indian Mythogoly. More importantly it explore the characters which are comparatively less explored, but played a very important role in making Bharat (that is India) what it is today.Of course, there are some gaps when you try to trace the incidents mentioned in various scriptures, which the author may need to go through to collect material for this book, and he had to instill the imaginary stuff there.While I think that the character of the protagonist could have been given more footage, especially, his days of teen, whatever explored is good in terms of content and representation both. Despite it being the story of Raam, the incident which were responsible to make him Parshuram are explored quite nicely.Before many years, when reading reviews for a movie, I found a nice line written by a reviewer which was telling something like, without properly exploring the antagonist, you cannot explore the abilities of the protagonist. Very true. The stronger the antagonist is, the protagonist will automatically become stronger than him/her. Often we start marking various characters as black and white, while there is nothing can be attributes so in absolute manner. Practically, almost everyone has the shades of grays, and it is the responsibility of the storyteller to explore them in that way.What I like in this book is the way the character of Arjun is explored. Of course, the way characters of Ravana, Ruchik, Satyavati, Yamadagni, Renuka, Ram and others are explored are pretty effective and nice, Arjun's character is given proper footage. I'd not seen it is explored so much in other scriptures I came across so far. And I confirm that if it is not explored so nicely, his actions and others' reactions towards the same might not be that convincing. With that let me tell you that each of the character is given its due importance.The book is good at philosophical and spiritual level as well. The expertise of the author in building scenes and explaining surroundings and exploring battle is admirable. He is a worthy competitor to the bestselling authors in this genre in many aspects.Here are some of the interesting lines from the book:In every country or society, there exists a few who are unhappy with the way things are…----No matter how far one travelled, one had to come back home at the end of the journey.-----Well, what is history but the variation of facts by the victorious and the self-sympathizing delusions of the defeated?----The cover page is good but could have been a little better.Overall, a fantastically retold mythological tale with logical approach. The book has good literary attributes and strong characters.

While the detailed book review is available on our website, here is the summarized one.Dr. Vineet Aggrawal, a famous author who started his career as an author by writing a book about Vishwamitra, came with a detailed book on Parshuram.The plot of this book has its root in the book about Vishwamitra, however, don't worry if you haven't read it yet. The book is complete in itself and you can enjoy reading it without missing any important detail.The Plot:Let us take a bird's eye view to the plot of the book where I will try to keep most of the spoilers at the bay, but some of them are unavoidable :).It all stars with the actions of Ruchik, the descendant of Bhrigu who feel disheartened by the actions of his wife Satyavati and her mother, as decided to leave the domestic life. He leaves everything in a moment, including his newborn, and went to the Himalayas to complete his spiritual journey.The Karma is a great leveler and one has to fulfill all his/her duties, and thus, the circumstances took the turn and Ruchik has to come back into the lives of his wife Satyavati and son Yamadagni (aka Jamadagni)!Arjun is one of the great rulers of Nabhivarsh and he followed the path of Dharma. With the able guidance of his father and immense warrior skills of his own, he went ahead to have some of the most remarkable political alliances and fought some great wars, all to establish the kingdom of Dharma all over the earth. He was almost successful in his efforts.Almost, because, there are tribes, which want to keep following their own way of ruling and don't care much about the ideal practices advised by the Dharma. And some of the most cunning minds and brave fighters were there at their side also. Adding to them was Ravana, the rising figure in Asura tribe who is of mixed origin and possessor of the good qualities of both the clans.Why, Arjun, the ferocious warrior, better known as Sahatrarjun, then is considered as the one who did some wrong stuffs? Why he is killed by Raam (who became Parshuram by then)? And why Raam started a series of wiping out the Kshatryia rulers who were not following the path of Dharma? The sequence of actions and their reactions, are better to explore by reading this book.Views and Reviews:The book is written in a gripping manner and is a delight for the lovers of Indian Mythogoly. More importantly it explore the characters which are comparatively less explored, but played a very important role in making Bharat (that is India) what it is today.Of course, there are some gaps when you try to trace the incidents mentioned in various scriptures, which the author may need to go through to collect material for this book, and he had to instill the imaginary stuff there.While I think that the character of the protagonist could have been given more footage, especially, his days of teen, whatever explored is good in terms of content and representation both. Despite it being the story of Raam, the incident which were responsible to make him Parshuram are explored quite nicely.Before many years, when reading reviews for a movie, I found a nice line written by a reviewer which was telling something like, without properly exploring the antagonist, you cannot explore the abilities of the protagonist. Very true. The stronger the antagonist is, the protagonist will automatically become stronger than him/her. Often we start marking various characters as black and white, while there is nothing can be attributes so in absolute manner. Practically, almost everyone has the shades of grays, and it is the responsibility of the storyteller to explore them in that way.What I like in this book is the way the character of Arjun is explored. Of course, the way characters of Ravana, Ruchik, Satyavati, Yamadagni, Renuka, Ram and others are explored are pretty effective and nice, Arjun's character is given proper footage. I'd not seen it is explored so much in other scriptures I came across so far. And I confirm that if it is not explored so nicely, his actions and others' reactions towards the same might not be that convincing. With that let me tell you that each of the character is given its due importance.The book is good at philosophical and spiritual level as well. The expertise of the author in building scenes and explaining surroundings and exploring battle is admirable. He is a worthy competitor to the bestselling authors in this genre in many aspects.Here are some of the interesting lines from the book:In every country or society, there exists a few who are unhappy with the way things are…----No matter how far one travelled, one had to come back home at the end of the journey.-----Well, what is history but the variation of facts by the victorious and the self-sympathizing delusions of the defeated?----The cover page is good but could have been a little better.Overall, a fantastically retold mythological tale with logical approach. The book has good literary attributes and strong characters.

क्षत्रिय रुधिर मये जगदपगत पापंस्नपयसि पयसि शमित भव तापंकेशव धृत भ्र्गुपति रूप जय जगदीश हरेYou bathe the world, whose sins have been destroyed and whose afflictions of existence have been allayed, with the waters mixed with the blood of the Kshatriyas. O Keshava, You who have assumed the form of Bhrigupati, O Lord of the world, victory be unto You.– Jayadeva’s compositionVineet Aggarwal’s Legend of Parshu-Raam chronicles the genesis of the warrior-Rishi Raam. The book is a sequel to his earlier one, Vishwamitra – The man who defied Gods (I had liked that a lot as well. My review pending). The rise of Vishwamitra to the pedestal of Brahmarshi is one of the early examples of Varna ‘transgression’ that was also blessed by the gods (albeit after continuous testing). The emergence of Rama, the Bhargava as the warrior can be seen as a converse ‘transgression’ which in fact got the world rid of the tyrannical rule of wayward kings. In a way, I see it as a negation of hierarchy (if any) and hailing the action of ‘rising to the occasion’.Coming to the book, Vineet draws from the Puranic version of the story where the destinies of Vishvamitra and his nephew Jamadagni (consequently passed to Jamadagni’s son Rama) were determined by the magic potion concocted by Maharishi Ruchik. In contrast to a lot of popular retellings, the author sticks to the Puranic plot while successfully chiseling the character sketches, narrating their journeys and visualizing relationships. Being a woman, I liked the way character sketches of Satyavathi and Renuka were conceived and presented.

It is must read book...

beautifully composed

I found this book through Dr Agarwals excellent website Decode Hindu Mythology. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found his story telling to be both entertaining and informative.

While the detailed book review is available on our website, here is the summarized one.Dr. Vineet Aggrawal, a famous author who started his career as an author by writing a book about Vishwamitra, came with a detailed book on Parshuram.The plot of this book has its root in the book about Vishwamitra, however, don't worry if you haven't read it yet. The book is complete in itself and you can enjoy reading it without missing any important detail.The Plot:Let us take a bird's eye view to the plot of the book where I will try to keep most of the spoilers at the bay, but some of them are unavoidable :).It all stars with the actions of Ruchik, the descendant of Bhrigu who feel disheartened by the actions of his wife Satyavati and her mother, as decided to leave the domestic life. He leaves everything in a moment, including his newborn, and went to the Himalayas to complete his spiritual journey.The Karma is a great leveler and one has to fulfill all his/her duties, and thus, the circumstances took the turn and Ruchik has to come back into the lives of his wife Satyavati and son Yamadagni (aka Jamadagni)!Arjun is one of the great rulers of Nabhivarsh and he followed the path of Dharma. With the able guidance of his father and immense warrior skills of his own, he went ahead to have some of the most remarkable political alliances and fought some great wars, all to establish the kingdom of Dharma all over the earth. He was almost successful in his efforts.Almost, because, there are tribes, which want to keep following their own way of ruling and don't care much about the ideal practices advised by the Dharma. And some of the most cunning minds and brave fighters were there at their side also. Adding to them was Ravana, the rising figure in Asura tribe who is of mixed origin and possessor of the good qualities of both the clans.Why, Arjun, the ferocious warrior, better known as Sahatrarjun, then is considered as the one who did some wrong stuffs? Why he is killed by Raam (who became Parshuram by then)? And why Raam started a series of wiping out the Kshatryia rulers who were not following the path of Dharma? The sequence of actions and their reactions, are better to explore by reading this book.Views and Reviews:The book is written in a gripping manner and is a delight for the lovers of Indian Mythogoly. More importantly it explore the characters which are comparatively less explored, but played a very important role in making Bharat (that is India) what it is today.Of course, there are some gaps when you try to trace the incidents mentioned in various scriptures, which the author may need to go through to collect material for this book, and he had to instill the imaginary stuff there.While I think that the character of the protagonist could have been given more footage, especially, his days of teen, whatever explored is good in terms of content and representation both. Despite it being the story of Raam, the incident which were responsible to make him Parshuram are explored quite nicely.Before many years, when reading reviews for a movie, I found a nice line written by a reviewer which was telling something like, without properly exploring the antagonist, you cannot explore the abilities of the protagonist. Very true. The stronger the antagonist is, the protagonist will automatically become stronger than him/her. Often we start marking various characters as black and white, while there is nothing can be attributes so in absolute manner. Practically, almost everyone has the shades of grays, and it is the responsibility of the storyteller to explore them in that way.What I like in this book is the way the character of Arjun is explored. Of course, the way characters of Ravana, Ruchik, Satyavati, Yamadagni, Renuka, Ram and others are explored are pretty effective and nice, Arjun's character is given proper footage. I'd not seen it is explored so much in other scriptures I came across so far. And I confirm that if it is not explored so nicely, his actions and others' reactions towards the same might not be that convincing. With that let me tell you that each of the character is given its due importance.The book is good at philosophical and spiritual level as well. The expertise of the author in building scenes and explaining surroundings and exploring battle is admirable. He is a worthy competitor to the bestselling authors in this genre in many aspects.Here are some of the interesting lines from the book:In every country or society, there exists a few who are unhappy with the way things are…----No matter how far one travelled, one had to come back home at the end of the journey.-----Well, what is history but the variation of facts by the victorious and the self-sympathizing delusions of the defeated?----The cover page is good but could have been a little better.Overall, a fantastically retold mythological tale with logical approach. The book has good literary attributes and strong characters.

Parashuram is known to many as the wielder of axe, the ferocious warrior that killed kshatriyas. But the author chose to depict his calm nature and his intellect. How a Brahmin, a son of a priest, became a warrior. The author shows how he brought a change in the society where a person's karma would decide his caste, and not the caste in which he is born. Another commendable point is how the author has explained in detail the entire backstory, the situations, which lead a this Brahmin boy Ram to become Parashuram. How he used the different influential characters of that era, like Ravan, karkotak, Arjuna, to weave a layered plot. I was more impressed with the character or Arjuna, the antagonist. In fact, I was disappointed when he was finally slayed by Parashuram. A was a great king and it was sad to see him getting defeated and killed. He didn't deserve that. All in all, it is a great mythological fiction which kept the true essence of the stories from scriptures intact.

The media could not be loaded.  This book is wholesome.I was more or less aware about Ramayan and Mahabharat. This book gives an insight about a previous incarnation to f lord Vishnu, but also speaks about how the clans were formed right from Manu. It also speaks about the time frame wrt to Bramhalok. It will fill in the gaps of doubts that you have had about our epics.It gave me so much knowledge that I never knew I was missing on. Thanks to the author and his team.Dr. Vineet's writting is flawless but flowfull.

It's a very well written book, yet understand that it's partially fiction. The author has done justice to many of the historical facts, and then took liberty for his creativity. It's a good book to kick start your knowledge gathering about ancient Indian history. It's NOT mythology, it's HISTORY.