Parshuram Kund

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Context: The Lohit district administration is gearing up for the Parshuram Kund Festival (PKF), to be celebrated from 12 to 16 January.

Details:

About:

Parshuram Kund is a Hindu pilgrimage sites situated on the Brahmaputra plateau in the lower reaches of the Lohit River in Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh, India.
Dedicated to sage Parshuram, the popular site attracts pilgrims from Nepal, from across India, and from nearby states of Manipur and Assam.
Over 70,000 devotees and sadhus take a holy dip in its water each year on the occasion of Makar Sankranti, in the month of January.

Religious importance:

It is a shrine of all-India importance located in the lower reaches of the Lohit River.
It is believed that Lord Parashuram the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu, on the orders of his father Rishi Jamadagni, beheaded his mother Renuka with his axe.
Since he had committed one of the worst crimes of killing one's mother, the axe got stuck to his hand.
His father pleased with his obedience decided to give him a boon to which he asked for his mother to be restored back to life.
Even after his mother was brought back to life the axe could not be removed from his hand. This was a reminder of the heinous crime he had committed.
He repented for his crime and on taking the advice of eminent rishis of that time, he arrived at the banks of Lohit River to wash his hands in its pure waters.
It was a way to cleanse him of all the sins. As soon as he dipped his hands into the waters the axe immediately got detached and since then the site where he washed his hands became a place of worship and came to be known by sadhus as Parashuram Kund.

Who was Parshuram?

Lord Parshuram is known to be the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
He is the human avatar of Vishnu and called the God of justice.
He is said to exist to date as He was one of the seven Cheeranjivis.
He is the one who was present during Mahabharata as well as Ramayana and has met Lord Rama.
Since Parshurama was a great devotee of Lord Shiva, it is believed that he got the axe from God himself after pleasing Him.
He is the only avatar of Vishnu who co-existed along with Rama and Krishna (other avatars of Vishnu).