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Bharadvaja (, ; also spelled Bharadwaja) was one of the revered Vedic sages (maharishi) in Ancient India. He was a renowned scholar, economist, grammarian and a physician. He is one of the (seven great sages or Maharishi).
His contributions to ancient Indian literature, specifically the Rigveda, provide significant insight into ancient Vedic society. He and his family of students were the authors of Mandala 6 in the Rigveda. In the epic Mahabharata, Bharadvaja was the father of Drona, the guru and instructor to the Pandava and Kaurava princes in the Mahabharata. Bharadvaja is also mentioned in Charaka Samhita, an authoritative ancient Indian medical text.
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 , 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.
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.
Bharadvaja is considered to be the initiator of the Bharadvāja gotra of the Brahmins, Khatris, Bharadvaja is the third in the row of the Pravaras ( Aangirasa, Barhaspatya, Bharadvaja) and is the first in the Bharadvaja Gotris, with the other two rishis being initiators of Gotras with their respective names.
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:
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.
Texts
Bharadvaja and his family of students are 55. Bharadvaja and his family of students were the traditional poets of king Marutta of the Vedic era, in the Hindu texts.
Epics and Puranic scriptures
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. 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 Dronacharya. 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 Ashwatthama, the son of Drona. 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 The Mahabharata 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.
Rāmāyaṇa
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. 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.
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