Mamatā
Mamatā · mama-tā, “the sense of ‘mine'”
Mamatā was the wife of Utathya, the brother of Bṛhaspati. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa names her as the mother of Dīrghatamas, whom Bharata Cakravarti made his purohita, and tells how Bharadvāja was born to her of Bṛhaspati. Fearing that her husband would abandon her, Mamatā left that child, and the devas sang a śloka of her words and Bṛhaspati’s that explains the name Bharadvāja. The Marud-devatās raised the boy and gave him to Bharata, whose line had no heir. Śuka Maharshi tells this to King Parīkshit in the account of the line of Pūru.
Mother of Dīrghatamas
Bharata, son of Dushyanta and Śakuntalā, performed fifty-five aśvamedha yāgas on the bank of the Gaṅgā. He made Dīrghatamas, the son of Mamatā, his purohita, and on the bank of the Yamunā performed seventy-eight more, giving away wealth in dāna.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 20
The birth of Bharadvāja
Bharata’s three queens, daughters of the king of Vidarbha, killed their children when he said they were not fit for him, and his line was left without a shoot. Bharata performed the yajña called Marut-stoma and worshipped the Marud-devatās, and the Maruts, pleased, gave him Bharadvāja as a son. Śuka then tells how Bharadvāja was born.
One day Bṛhaspati moved towards union with Mamatā, the pregnant wife of his brother Utathya. The child in her womb forbade him. Bṛhaspati, angry, pronounced a śāpa on that child, “Be blind”, and let fall his seed, and from it a son was born.
Mamatā feared that her husband would abandon her, and resolved to abandon that boy. Then the devas sang a śloka to her, a dialogue of Mamatā and Bṛhaspati that explains the boy’s name:
- Bṛhaspati: “O foolish one! This boy is born of us two. So nourish him.”
- Mamatā: “O Bṛhaspati! This boy is born of us two, so you yourself nourish him.”
Saying so, the two of them left the boy, and from their words, “nourish” and “born of two”, he became Bharadvāja. The devas urged Mamatā not to fear that her husband would abandon her. But Mamatā, thinking the boy fruitless, abandoned him. The Marud-devatās nourished him, and since Bharata’s line was becoming fruitless, they gave this boy to Bharata.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 20
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 20