conduct of the Raja to his parents; to whose aid he immediately flew, but arrived only time enough to view the smoking embers of the funeral pile. The tears rushed down his lovely face, and he swore by the waters of the Ganges that he would never rest until he had exterminated the whole race of the Khettris, the raja-tribe of India. Armed with the invincible energy of an incarnate god, he commenced his career of vengeance by seeking and putting to death, with his single arm, the tyrant, with all the forces that surrounded him; he then marched from province to province, every where exerting the unerring bow Dhanuk, and devoted the whole of the military race of Khettri to death. After a life spent in mighty and holy deeds, Rāma gave his whole property in alms, and retired to the Kokan, where he is said to be still living on the Malabar coast.
I have an illuminated picture of this avatar representing a single combat between Parashu-Rāma and the tyrant Diruj: the Raja is represented with twenty-two arms, three of which, having been cut off by Rāma, have fallen to the ground, the remaining nineteen he is brandishing about. In the upper part of the picture is represented the cell of the hermit, in front of which Jamadagni lies dead, and the holy cow with golden horns and golden wings is flying through the clouds.
7. RĀMA-CHANDRA.
Rāma-Chandra, son of Dasarathu, and conqueror of Lankā or Ceylon, was the seventh avatar; when the deity descended for the purpose of destroying Rāvana, who having obtained (for his devotion) a promise from Brahma that he should not suffer death by any of the usual means, was become the tyrant and pest of mankind. The Devatās came in the shape of monkeys, as Rāvana had gained no promise of safety from them; hence, Hanumāna was Rāma's general. Rāma-Chandra's mother's name was Kaushalyā. His younger brother, Bharata, was son of Kekayī, who was the cause of Rāma's going to the desert to perform devotions on the banks of the Pampa-nadī, insisting that her son should reign the fourteen years that Rāma employed in the devotion. It was while performing his devotion (or during
