Renuka and Parashurama

The story

The sage Jamadagni, angered with his wife Renuka, ordered his sons to kill her. Only Parashurama, the youngest, obeyed; granted a boon by his father, he asked that his mother be restored, and she was.¹²

Tellings differ: in some her head is replaced by another woman’s, and in a South Indian version an outcast woman beheaded with her is revived too, both becoming goddesses.¹²