Dashavatara
Chine collee print
5 x 7
2014
Parasurama
King Arjuna, you think
that you can steal my father’s cow
after she has managed to feed
you and your men at my home.
Here I am at your gates and
you send out seventeen
akshauhinis to get rid of me –
seventeen sets of 109,350 infantry,
65,610 cavalry, 21,870 chariots
and as many elephants.
I destroy all of them
with my favorite axe.
No one escapes alive.
Then you come yourself,
with your thousand arms,
all throwing rocks
and uprooted trees.
I lop off all your arms,
swing the axe
down on your neck,
and that’s the end of you.