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Meanwhile, another formidable personage was shaping up in the Narmada valley who was destined to clash with Bhargavrama. His name was Kartavirya and he belonged to the Haihaya dynasty. He was also famous as Sahasrarjuna. As the story goes, just as Shiva had favoured Bhargavrama with his blessings, Vishnu in his avatara of Dattatreya had given his blessings to Kartavirya. It was due to the boon conferred on him by Dattatreya that Kartavirya got a thousand arms in place of his original two. With this superhuman power, the Haihaya prince launched in real earnest his campaign for the conquest of the world. Kartavirya decided to perform digvijaya, the symbolic conquest of all the quarters, so as to prove his supremacy over all the kshatriyas and rules. There was nothing wrong with this. But the prince went much further than that. He went about challenging anybody that he came across and destroying anything that was sacred. He demolished the ashram of Vasishtha and in return got a curse that Parashurama would cut off his thousand arms before long.
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