The actual account was something like this-
Renuka Devi was was the extremely chaste wife of Rishi Jamadagni. As it happens in most such cases, her husband was always absorbed in austerities, and did not pay much attention to his wife. However Renuka never complained.
Every morning, she would go to the river bank and after having her bath, she would fashion a pot out of wet clay. Such was the power of chastity, that she would be able to hold the wet pot in her hands and even bring water in it.
One day, she saw a Gandharva couple frolicking in the waters. She wondered how the feeling would be- to enjoy such things with one's husband. That was it. Her mere looking at the Gandharva couple costed her her chastity and she found that she was unable to fashion a pot with we clay.
She stood before her husband, with neither the water nor the pot. Jamadagni through his intutive powers found out what happened and decreed that that his wife should forfiet her life. 😲
(Judge, Jury and executioner all rolled into one- what a khap panchayat )
Added by Vrish - He then first asked his other sons to kill their mother, but they refused. He then cursed them to become insane, and later asked Parashurama to do it, and the latter obeyed. The rest of the story then was as described.
This topic was discussed in the D&D thread
here Edited by varaali - 12 years ago