Bharadvāja (country)

Bharadvāja · bharad-vāja

Bharadvāja has other meanings too: see all meanings of Bharadvāja.

Bharadvāja is a country of Bhārata-varsha, one of the lands where the Kirāta jātis live. The Brahma Purāṇa names it in its account of the lands and peoples of Bhārata, which Brahmā (Padmaja) gives to the munis. It is a different subject from Bharadvāja Maharshi, the saptarshi.

Among the lands of the Kirātas

Brahmā tells the munis that Bhārata-varsha is the best of all lands, the land where karma bears fruit; even the devas long to be born there. When the munis ask for the whole account of that holy land, he speaks of its nine parts and then names its countries, region by region: the countries of the middle region, the countries where the kshatriya, vaiśya and śūdra jātis live, and then the countries of the Kirāta jātis.

The countries of the Kirāta jātis, in the order the Purāṇa gives them, are Kāmboja, Barbara, Laukika, Vīra, Tushāra, Prahlāva, Ādhāyata, Nara, Ātreya, Bharadvāja, Pushkala, Daśeraka, Lampaka, Śunaśśoka, Kulika, Jāṅgala, Aushadhi and Calacandra. Bharadvāja stands tenth, after Ātreya and before Pushkala. After them Brahmā names the countries of the north of Bhārata, then those of the east and the south.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 27

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 27