Janamejaya said: "Both those who have been named, O brahmin, and the others not named — the radiant kings — I wish to hear of in full detail. And for what purpose these godlike great warriors were born on earth — that, O fortunate one, you are worthy to tell me in full." Vaishampayana said: "This, O king, is a secret of the gods, as we have heard it; I shall tell it to you, having first bowed to the Self-Existent One [Brahma]. The son of Jamadagni (Parashurama), having once made the earth twenty-one times void of kshatriyas, performed austerities on the most excellent Mount Mahendra. Then, when the world had been made by the Bhargava free of kshatriyas, O king, the kshatriya women, desiring offspring, turned to the brahmins. The brahmins, firm in their vows, came together with them only at the proper season, O tiger among men, not out of desire and not outside the season. And those kshatriya women conceived by them by the thousands; then, O king, they bore valiant kshatriyas — boys and girls — once more for the increase of the kshatra. Thus that kshatra, born by dharma from the kshatriya women through the ascetic brahmins, flourished, endowed with a very long life. And all four classes then came to have the brahmins at their head. Men approached their wives at the proper season, not out of desire and not outside the season; likewise other creatures too, even those of animal birth, came together with their mates only in season, O bull among the Bharatas. And those creatures, devoted to the vow of dharma, grew by dharma, living for a hundred thousand years, free from afflictions of mind and body."