Bharadvaja

The word Bharadvaja is a compound Sanskrit from "bhara(d)" and "vaja(m)", which together mean "bringing about nourishment".{{cite book|author=Thaneswar Sharma |title=The Bharadvājas in Ancient India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xFyu7MANWPAC | year=1991|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0639-9|pages=58–60}} The name lends itself to more than one yoga asana{{clarify|date=March 2024}} called Bharadvajasana ("nourishing pose") named after the eponymous sage.{{cn|date=March 2024}}

His full name in Vedic texts is Bharadvaja Barhaspatya, the last name referring to his father and Vedic deity-sage Brihaspati. His mother was Mamata, wife of Utathya Rishi, who was the elder brother of Barhaspati.{{cite book|author=Roshen Dalal|title=Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DH0vmD8ghdMC |year=2010| publisher=Penguin Books| isbn=978-0-14-341421-6| pages=86–87}} In the Bhagavata Purana, he is named as Vitatha.{{Cite web|url=https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/9/21/1/|title=Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa) » Canto 9: Liberation » Chapter Twenty-One}} He is one of seven rishis mentioned four times in the Rigveda as well as in the Shatapatha Brahmana, thereafter revered in the Mahabharata and the Puranas.{{cite book|author=Barbara A. Holdrege|title=Veda and Torah: Transcending the Textuality of Scripture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YlvikndgEmIC&pg=PA657 |year=2012|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-1-4384-0695-4|pages=229–230, 243–244}} In some later Puranic legends, he is described as the son of Vedic sage Atri.{{cite book|author=George M. Williams |title=Handbook of Hindu Mythology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7LOZfwCDpEC&pg=PA82| year=2008| publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-533261-2|pages=82–83}}

In Buddhist Pali canonical texts such as Digha Nikaya, Tevijja Sutta describes a discussion between the Buddha and Vedic scholars of his time. The Buddha names ten rishis, calls them "early sages" and makers of ancient verses that have been collected and chanted in his era, and among those ten rishis is Bharadvaja.{{cite book|author=Maurice Walshe|title=The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uj86AwAAQBAJ |year=2005|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-86171-979-2|pages=188–189}}{{refn|group=note|The Buddha names the following as "early sages" of Vedic verses, "Atthaka (either Ashtavakra or Atri), Vamaka, Vamadeva, Vessamitta (Visvamitra), Yamataggi, Angirasa, Bharadvaja, Vasettha (Vashistha), Kassapa (Kashyapa) and Bhagu (Bhrigu)".}}

The ancient Hindu medical treatise Charaka Samhita attributes Bharadvaja learning medical sciences to Indra, after pleading that "poor health was disrupting the ability of human beings from pursuing their spiritual journey", and then Indra provides both the method and specifics of medical knowledge.{{cite book|author=Ariel Glucklich|title=The Strides of Vishnu: Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective|year= 2008|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn= 978-0-19-531405-2|pages= 141–142}}{{Sfn|Kaviratna|Sharma|1913|pp=ii–iii, 1–3 (Volume 1 of 5)}}

Bharadvaja is considered to be the initiator of the Bharadvāja gotra of the Brahmins, Khatris, Bharadvaja is the third in the row of the Pravara Rishis (Aangirasa, Barhaspatya, Bharadvaja) and is the first in the Bharadvaja Gotris, with the other two rishis being initiators of Gotras with their respective names.{{cite web |last1=Prasad |first1=Hari |title=Gotras and Pravaras |url=https://www.indiafacts.org.in/gotras-and-pravaras/ |website=Indiafacts.org}}

Bharadvaja and his family of students are 55.{{cite book|author1=Stephanie Jamison|author2= Joel Brereton| title=The Rigveda: 3-Volume Set|url =https://books.google.com/books?id=fgzVAwAAQBAJ| year=2014| publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-972078-1|pages=1691–1693}} Bharadvaja and his family of students were the traditional poets of king Marutta of the Vedic era, in the Hindu texts.{{cite journal| last=Brereton| first= Joel P.| title= The Bharadvajas in Ancient India| journal= The Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume= 113| number= 4| year= 1993| pages= 599–600| doi= 10.2307/605794| jstor= 605794}}

Bharadvaja is a revered sage in the Hindu traditions, and like other revered sages, numerous treatises composed in the ancient and medieval eras are reverentially named after him. Some treatises named after him or attributed to him include:

• Dhanur-veda, credited to Bharadvaja in chapter 12.203 of the Mahabharata, is an Upaveda treatise on archery.{{cite book|author=Barbara A. Holdrege|title=Veda and Torah: Transcending the Textuality of Scripture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YlvikndgEmIC&pg=PA657 |year=2012|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-1-4384-0695-4|page=504 note 177}}
• Bharadvaja samhita, a Pancharatra text (an Agama text of Vaishnavism).{{cite book|author=Surendranath Dasgupta|title=A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume III|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l-TCIGuP9YIC&pg=PA379 |year=1940|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-04780-7|page=379}}
• Bharadvaja srautasutra and grhyasutra, a ritual and rites of passage text from first millennium BCE.{{cite book|author=Thaneswar Sharma |title=The Bharadvājas in Ancient India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xFyu7MANWPAC&pg=PA253|year=1991|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0639-9|page=253 note 17a}}{{cite book|author=Adam Bowles|title=Dharma, Disorder and the Political in Ancient India: The Āpaddharmaparvan of the Mahābhārata|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9MOwCQAAQBAJ |year=2007|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=978-90-474-2260-0|pages=xiii (see: BhaGS)}}A. Berriedale Keith (1914), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25189257 Reviewed Work: Bhāradvāja Gṛhya Sütra by Henriette J. W. Salomons], The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Cambridge University Press, pp. 1078–1089 After the Kalpasutra by Baudhayana, these Bharadvaja texts are among the oldest srauta and grhya sutras known.{{cite book|author1=Moriz Winternitz |author-link1=Moriz Winternitz |author2=V. Srinivasa Sarma |title=A History of Indian Literature |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=JRfuJFRV_O8C |year=1996 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0264-3|page=259}}
• Sections in Ayurveda. Bharadvaja theories on medicine and causal phenomenon is described in Charaka Samhita. Bharadvaja states, for example, that an embryo is not caused by wish, prayers, urging of mind or mystical causes, but it is produced from the union of a man's sperm and menstrual blood of a woman at the right time of her menstrual cycle, in her womb.{{cite book|author=D. Wujastyk|title=The Roots of Ayurveda: Selections from Sanskrit Medical Writings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TaZCwjtmzZYC&pg=PA51|year=2003|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-044824-5|pages=51–53}}{{cite book|author=Gerrit Jan Meulenbeld|title=A History of Indian Medical Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wbwrAAAAYAAJ|year=1999|publisher=E. Forsten|isbn=978-90-6980-124-7|pages=152–155}} According to Gerrit Jan Meulenbeld, Bharadvaja is credited with many theories and practical ideas in ancient Indian medicine.
• Niti sastra, a treatise on ethics and practical conduct.{{cite book|author=Gerrit Jan Meulenbeld|title=A History of Indian Medical Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wbwrAAAAYAAJ|year=1999|publisher=E. Forsten|isbn=978-90-6980-124-7|page=153}}
• Bharadvaja-siksa, is one of many ancient Sanskrit treatises on phonetics.{{cite book|author1=Moriz Winternitz|author-link1=Moriz Winternitz|author2=V. Srinivasa Sarma|title=A History of Indian Literature |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JRfuJFRV_O8C&pg=PA266 |year=1996|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0264-3|pages=266 with footnotes}}

File: Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana at the Hermitage of Bharadvaja Page from a dispersed Ramayana (Story of King Rama), ca. 1780.jpg, Sītā and Lakṣmaṇa with sage Bharadvāja]]

According to one legend, Bharadvaja married Sushila and had a son named Garga and a daughter named Devavarshini. According to some other legends, Bharadvaja had two daughters named Ilavida and Katyayani, who married Vishrava and Yajnavalkya respectively.{{cite book|title=India through the ages|url=https://archive.org/details/indiathroughages00mada|last=Gopal|first=Madan|year= 1990| page= [https://archive.org/details/indiathroughages00mada/page/76 76]|editor=K.S. Gautam|publisher=Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India}} According to Vishnu Purana, Bharadvaja had a brief liaison with an apsara named Ghritachi, and together they had a child who grew up into a warrior-Brahmin named Drona. In the Mahabharata, Drona is instead born when Bharadvaja ejaculated his semen in a pot. Bharadvaja is therefore directly linked to two important characters of the epic Mahabharata — Dronacharya and Aśvatthāma, the son of Drona.[http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp076.htm Vishnu Purana -Drauni or Asvathama as Next saptarishi] Retrieved 2015-02-15 According to the Mahabharata, Bharadvaja trained Drona in the use of weapons.Ganguly [http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/maha/ The Mahabharata] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131115104843/http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/maha/ |date=15 November 2013 }} Retrieved 2015-02-15 Bharadvaja had two disciples: Agnivesa and Drupada. Agnivesa taught Drona the mastery of the weapon Agneya, while Drupada became the king of Panchala kingdom.

One legend in the Mahabharata states that King Bharata adopted Bharadvaja as his son when he was delivered to the king by the Marutas. Bharadvaja married a kshatriya woman named Sushila. According to the Bhagavata Purana, Bharadvaja beget a son named Manyu also known as Bhumanyu while in the Mahabharata Bhumanyu is born to him by a yajna.

File:Bharadvaja orders a great feast prepared for Bharata and his men.jpg

In the epic Ramayana, Rama, Sita and Lakshmana meet Bharadvaja at his ashrama (hermitage) at the start of their fourteen-year exile. The sage asks them to stay with him through the exile, but they insist on going deeper into the forest to Chitrakuta, which was three krosha away from the ashram. Bharadvaja gives them directions. Bharata is received at the ashrama by Bharadvaja when attempted to locate Rama in order to bring Sita, Lakshmana, and him back to Ayodhya.{{cite book|author=Ramesh Menon|title=The Ramayana: A Modern Retelling of the Great Indian Epic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aWFEAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |year=2004|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-86547-695-0|pages=109–110}} He reappears at various times in the epic. According to James Lochtefeld, the Bharadvaja in the Ramayana is different from the Vedic sage mentioned in Panini's Ashtadhyayi.{{cite book|author=James G. Lochtefeld|title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5kl0DYIjUPgC&pg=PA102|year=2002|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8239-3179-8|page=102}}

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• {{cite book|last1=Kaviratna |first1= Avinash C. |first2= P. |last2= Sharma | title=The Charaka Samhita 5 Vols.| year=1913| publisher= Sri Satguru Publications|isbn= 81-7030-471-7 |url= http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002074393}}

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Category:Brahmin gotras

Category:Rishis

Category:Characters in the Mahabharata

Category:Sages in the Ramayana

Category:Saptarishi