Mahendra Mountains is a mountain range described in the epic Mahabharata

Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....

. It is identified to be the part of the mountain ranges in the east coast of India (Eastern Ghats

Eastern Ghats

The Eastern Ghats or Eastern Ghauts are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats run from West Bengal state in the north, through Orissa and Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka. They are eroded and cut through by the...

), that falls in Orissa

Orissa

Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

. It is the place where Bhargava Rama or Parashurama

Parashurama

Parashurama , is the sixth avatar of Vishnu and belongs to the treta yuga, and is the son of a Brahmin father Jamadagni and mother Renuka. He is considered one of the seven immortal human. He received an axe after undertaking a terrible penance to please Shiva, from whom he learned the methods of...

 spending his days of life, as he is one of the chiranjeevi or having life up to pralaya

Pralaya

Pralaya, in Hindu cosmology, is an aeonic term which specifies different periods of time during which non activity situation persists, as per different formats or contexts...

. This place was visited by Arjuna

Arjuna

Arjuna in Indian mythology is the greatest warrior on earth and is one of the Pandavas, the heroes of the Hindu epic Mahābhārata. Arjuna, whose name means 'bright', 'shining', 'white' or 'silver' Arjuna (Devanagari: अर्जुन, Thai: อรชุน, Orachun, Tamil: Arjunan, Indonesian and Javanese: Harjuna,...

 as part of his pilgrimage.

Mahendragiri

The puran

Puran

Puran Puran Tehsil is a sub-division and tehsil of Shangla District in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan....

ic mountain Mahendragiri is situated in Paralakhemundi

Paralakhemundi

Parlakhemundi is a small town and a municipality in Gajapati district in the Indian state of Orissa. The major languages spoken in this region are Oriya and Telugu.- Demographics :...

, Gajapati district. Legend says that it is the place where Lord Parashurama

Parashurama

Parashurama , is the sixth avatar of Vishnu and belongs to the treta yuga, and is the son of a Brahmin father Jamadagni and mother Renuka. He is considered one of the seven immortal human. He received an axe after undertaking a terrible penance to please Shiva, from whom he learned the methods of...

 stays and does tapasya. Temples built by Pandavas are seen. The main festival here is Shivaratri, the worship of Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

, the guru or percepter of Lord Parashurama

Parashurama

Parashurama , is the sixth avatar of Vishnu and belongs to the treta yuga, and is the son of a Brahmin father Jamadagni and mother Renuka. He is considered one of the seven immortal human. He received an axe after undertaking a terrible penance to please Shiva, from whom he learned the methods of...

.