Bharata Cakravartī

Bharata Cakravartī was the eldest and best known of the hundred sons of Ṛshabhadeva and Jayantī. He was the supreme king of the southern land of Jambū-dvīpa. The whole land of Bhārata-varsha takes its name from him.

He was a great karma-yogī (one who acts without clinging to results) and performed many yajñas in the spirit of naishkarmya (action without bondage). In time he gave up his kingdom and went to the forest. One moment of attachment to a fawn that he had raised led to two more births. He was born first as a deer, then as the brāhmaṇa Jaḍabharata, and after that he was freed.

Birth and lineage

Bharata was the eldest of the hundred sons of Ṛshabhadeva and his queen Jayantī, the daughter of Indra. The Bhāgavata says that nine of the sons became the famous Nava-yogeśvaras (the nine masters of yoga): Kavi, Hari, Antarīksha, Prabuddha, Pippalāyana, Āvirhotra, Drumila, Camasa and Karabhājana. The remaining eighty-one were good rulers over the varshas (regions) and peoples of Jambū-dvīpa.

The line runs: Priyavrata, Āgnīdhra, Nābhi, Ṛshabhadeva, and then Bharata Cakravartī (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 5th Skandha, Chapter 4).

Coronation and reign

Ṛshabhadeva gave up the world and began his life as an avadhūta (a wanderer who has left all ties). Bharata was then crowned the supreme king of Bhārata-varsha. He ruled this holy land with full devotion to dharma. He married Pañcajanī, the daughter of Viśvarūpa. They had five sons: Sumati, Rāshṭrabṛta, Sudarśana, Āvaraṇa and Dhūmraketu.

Bharata was a great karma-yogī, as Ṛshabhadeva had taught. He performed one hundred aśvamedha-yajñas and many other great yajñas as pūjā (worship) of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa. He gave away great wealth as dakshiṇā (the gift to the priests) and did not cling to the results. His kingdom grew rich, his people were happy, and Bhārata prospered under his care. The land had been called Ajana-bhūmi before. From his reign it received its lasting name Bhārata-varsha (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 5th Skandha, Chapter 7).

Renunciation

Bharata put his five sons on the thrones of their regions and finished his royal duties. His heart turned wholly toward moksha (liberation). He divided his kingdom and gave up all royal ties. He went to the āśrama of the great Maharshi Pulaha on the bank of the river Gaṇḍakī, also called Cakranāda. It was a very holy place, filled with the presence of Bhagavān Vāsudeva. The Gaṇḍakī is the river whose bed holds the sacred śālagrāma stones, which are svayambhū (self-born) forms of Vishṇu.

At Pulaha’s āśrama, Bharata practised deep bhakti (devotion) and sādhanā (spiritual practice). He offered pūjā to Bhagavān Vāsudeva with flowers, fruits, new leaves, water and shoots gathered in the forest. He chanted the names of Bhagavān Vāsudeva and sang the glory of His forms with full focus. His mind, heart and senses were given wholly to remembering Nārāyaṇa. The Bhāgavata says that through this unbroken smaraṇa (remembrance) his heart became clear like pure crystal and showed only the divine. He wept with love as he chanted the names of Bhagavān Vāsudeva. His hair stood on end with joy. His throat was choked with bhakti-bhāva (feeling of devotion) (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 5th Skandha, Chapter 7).

Attachment to the fawn

One day Bharata sat in meditation on the bank of the Gaṇḍakī. He saw a doe drinking at the river. Just then a lion roared close by. The doe had just given birth to a fawn. She was frightened and leaped across the river in flight, and the effort killed her. The newborn fawn, helpless and alone, fell into the water.

Moved by deep pity, Bharata saved the fawn. He began to look after it every day. He fed it, kept it safe and carried it as it grew. Slowly his care turned into deep personal love. Thoughts of the fawn began to take the place of the remembrance of Bhagavān Vāsudeva in his mind. He worried when the fawn was away. He put off his pūjā to watch for it. In time the fawn became the main object of his mind. At the moment of his death, the face of the fawn was the last thing that rose in his mind (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 5th Skandha, Chapter 8).

Rebirth as a deer

The last thought at the time of death decides the next birth. Ṛshabhadeva taught this, and so does the Bhagavadgītā. So Bharata was born as a deer. By the power of his earlier tapas (austerity) and devotion, he kept full memory of his past life (jāti-smṛti). He grieved over his fall. He saw clearly that his attachment to the fawn had caused this birth, and he spent his deer-life in constant sorrow for it. He left the company of ordinary deer and lived near sādhus (holy men). He lived on dry leaves and fallen fruit and waited for that birth to end (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 5th Skandha, Chapter 8).

Rebirth as Jaḍabharata

When his deer-life ended, Bharata was born again, this time as a brāhmaṇa, the son of a learned and pious ṛshi. This is Jaḍabharata. He kept his jāti-smṛti in this third birth too. In this brāhmaṇa form he gained full liberation through his meeting with King Rahūgaṇa.

The name Bhārata-varsha

Bhārata-varsha was earlier called Ajana-bhūmi, or simply the southern varsha. It received its name in honour of this great king. The Bhāgavata records that the devas praised the new name. They said that a land which had the good fortune to be ruled by such a great king of dharma, and which saw the highest tapas of Ṛshabhadeva himself, deserved to carry the name of the best of Ṛshabha’s sons (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 5th Skandha, Chapter 7).

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 5th Skandha, Chapters 7–9
• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 5th Skandha, Chapter 4 (lineage)