Bharadvāja Maharshi

Bharadvāja

Bharadvāja is one of the great Vedic maharshis, a ṛshi of the highest learning. He appears in the Vedic saṃhitās (collections of hymns), the epics and the Purāṇas.

In the Rāmāyaṇa he is the chief disciple of Vālmīki, and he hosts Rāma at Prayāga. In the Mahābhārata he is the father of Droṇa and the teacher of King Śatruṃjaya. In the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa he is the main questioner in a deep talk with Bhṛgu Maharshi on the jīva (the living being) and the ātmā (the self).

In the Vāmana Purāṇa he is the guru of Bhagavān Vāmana: he performed the upanayana of the young brahmacārī, gave him the girdle, taught him the Sāmaveda and went with him to the yajña of the daitya king Bali. The same Purāṇa names him at Daksha‘s yajña with his wife Amāyā, as the Mahāpāśupata teacher of King Ṛshabha Somakeśvara, among the seven ṛshis whom Bhagavān Śiva sent to Himavān to ask for Devī Pārvatī, and among the seven maharshis who made the Brahmodumbara tīrtha at Kurukshetra.

In the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa: Bāla Kāṇḍa

Bharadvāja Maharshi appears in the first chapters of the Bāla Kāṇḍa as the chief disciple of Vālmīki, the Ādi Kavi (first poet). He is at Vālmīki’s āśrama (hermitage) when Nārada Maharshi visits. Vālmīki asks Nārada: “Who is there in the world who has all virtues?” Nārada answers with a short account of the story of Rāma, the Rāmāyaṇa-saṃkshepa. Bharadvāja hears this account. He is the first human to receive the story of Rāma through Vālmīki’s line.

Then Brahmā gave Vālmīki his charge. The first śloka (verse) was born from Vālmīki’s grief. Vālmīki saw the whole story of Rāma in a full yogic vision and composed the Rāmāyaṇa. He himself recited the finished Rāmāyaṇa to Bharadvāja. So Bharadvāja was the first disciple to receive the Ādikāvya (the first poem) from the mouth of its author. Vālmīki later taught it to Kuśa and Lava. Bharadvāja’s receiving of the text directly from Vālmīki is the first handing down of the Rāmāyaṇa in the guru-śishya paramparā (the line from teacher to student).

In the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa

At Naimishāraṇya, Nārada Maharshi asks about the nature of the jīva. Sānandana Maharshi answers by telling an ancient saṃvāda (dialogue) between Bhṛgu and Bharadvāja.

In this dialogue Bharadvāja is the questioner. He puts forward the nāstika (materialist) view: that the jīva is only a product of the five elements (pañcabhūtas) and has no life of its own beyond the body. His sharp challenge leads Bhṛgu to give a full, step-by-step refutation of materialism. Bhṛgu establishes the teaching that the ātmā is the antaryāmī (the inner ruler within every being). Bharadvāja’s questions draw out the whole argument about the self and the path to moksha (liberation).

In the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa: Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa

Bharadvāja’s āśrama at Prayāga, the holy meeting of the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā, is a key point in Rāma’s exile. Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa crossed the Gaṅgā at Śṛṅgaverapura. They sent Sumantra back to Ayodhyā and entered the Vatsa country. Then they made their way to Prayāga.

There Bharadvāja received them with full hospitality. He gave water for the feet, arghya (a water offering), a seat and forest food. He listened as Rāma explained their situation.

Rāma asked where they might live for the fourteen years of exile. Bharadvāja sent them to Citrakūṭa. This is a beautiful mountain forest thirty krośas (a measure of distance) to the south. The river Mandākinī flows through it. Ṛshis live there, and it is full of birds and fruit trees. His account of the beauty of Citrakūṭa decided where Rāma would spend the central years of the Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa (Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapter 54).

Hospitality to Bharata’s army

Bharata came to Prayāga at the head of his great procession, searching for Rāma. It included thousands of soldiers, ministers, queens, ṛshis, horses and elephants. Bharadvāja received him and sent him on to Citrakūṭa.

Beyond this, Bharadvāja used the great power of his tapas (austerity) to give the whole army a night of divine hospitality. By yogic invocation he called up divine means. The soldiers were housed in palaces of svarga. They were given the finest food and wines, served by divine beings, and entertained with divine music and dance. By morning all were refreshed. This showed the full reach of Bharadvāja’s tapas-śakti (power of austerity) (Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, the chapters on Bharata).

In the Mahābhārata: father of Droṇa

Bharadvāja is the father of Droṇācārya, the great weapons-teacher of the Kuru and Pāṇḍava princes. Droṇa was born in an unusual way. He came from a droṇa (a pot), into which Bharadvāja had placed his seed on seeing the apsarā Ghṛtācī. Bharadvāja trained Droṇa in all weapons and astras (divine missiles), and so made him the greatest weapons-teacher of his age (Ādi Parva, Sambhava Parva, Chapter 130).

In the Āpaddharma Parva: teaching Śatruṃjaya

In the Āpaddharma Parva of the Mahābhārata‘s Śānti Parva, Bharadvāja is the teacher who passed on Kaṇika’s statecraft for times of crisis to Śatruṃjaya, the king of Suvīra. Śatruṃjaya came to him in a state of deep political trouble.

Kaṇika is one of the best-known teachers of hard political strategy in the Ādi Parva tradition. Drawing on his wisdom, Bharadvāja gave a full teaching on āpaddharma (the duty of kings in times of danger). It covered:

• the first place of daṇḍa (the rod of punishment) in real crises
• the right use of the spy system
• kāla (timing) as the heart of decisive action
• four animal comparisons for strategic dispositions: the heron (baka), the lion (siṃha), the wolf (vṛka) and the arrow (bāṇa)

Śatruṃjaya followed the teaching exactly and brought back stability to his kingdom (Śānti Parva, Chapter 140).

In the Anuśāsana Parva: the Bisa-Stainya Upākhyāna and the oaths

Bharadvāja is one of the seven great ṛshis of the Bisa-Stainya Upākhyāna in the Anuśāsana Parva (Chapter 93). He wanders with Atri, Vasishṭha, Kaśyapa, Gautama, Viśvāmitra and Jamadagni through a great famine. They refuse the wealth of King Vṛshādarbhi. At a lotus pond they defeat the rākshasī Kṛtyā. There Bharadvāja gives a learned explanation of his own name through bharaṇa (sustaining), meaning that he sustains even the unworthy and the disloyal (Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 93).

In the next episode, the Śapatha-Vidhi (Chapter 94) at Prabhāsa, Bharadvāja was among the assembly who swore self-curses over the theft of Agastya‘s lotus. It was later shown that Indra himself had taken it, as a test (Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 94).

In the Mahā Prasthānika Parva: honoured before the great departure

Yudhishṭhira prepared for the great departure. He fed and honoured great ṛshis with gifts of jewels, garments, villages, horses and chariots. Bharadvāja was among them, with Vyāsa, Nārada, Mārkaṇḍeya and Yājñavalkya. While he did so, the king told of the virtues of Śrī Kṛshṇa (Mahā Prasthānika Parva, Chapter 1).

In the Vāmana Purāṇa

In the Vāmana Purāṇa, which Pulastya Maharshi told to Nārada Maharshi, Bharadvāja is an Āṅgirasa of the gotra of Bṛhaspati, a ṛshi of great tejas (spiritual radiance) who knows all the śāstras. He is invited with his wife to Daksha‘s yajña, he is the Mahāpāśupata teacher of King Ṛshabha Somakeśvara, and he is one of the seven ṛshis whom Bhagavān Śiva sent to Himavān. Above all, he is the guru of Bhagavān Vāmana: he performed the upanayana of the young brahmacārī, taught him the Sāmaveda, heard from him the places where his forms dwell, and went with him to the yajña of the daitya king Bali.

At Daksha’s yajña

When autumn had passed and Uttarāyaṇa had begun, Daksha, best of the prajāpatis, began a great kratu (yajña). He made the twelve Ādityas, the devas headed by Indra and Kaśyapa Maharshi the members of the assembly. He invited the ṛshis together with their wives: Arundhatī and Vasishṭha, Atri and Anasūyā, Dhṛti and Kauśika, Ahalyā and Gautama, Amāyā and Bharadvāja, and Candrā and Aṅgiras. These knowers of the Veda he appointed as the yājakas (the officiating priests) of the yajña. He invited all his sons-in-law, daughters and grandsons, except Satī and Bhagavān Śiva.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 2

The Mahāpāśupata teacher

When Brahmā made the people of the four varṇas devoted to the pūjā of Hara (Bhagavān Śiva), he set going the four chief śāstras for it: the Śaiva, the Pāśupata, the Kālavadana (Kālāmukha) and the Kāpālika. Their teachers and disciples came in the same order. Śakti, the dear son of Vasishṭha, was a Śaiva, and his disciple was Gopāyana. Bharadvāja was a Mahāpāśupata, and the disciple of that tapasvī was a king, Ṛshabha Somakeśvara. Āpastamba, rich in tapas, was a devotee of the Kālāmukha, and his disciple was the vaiśya Krātheśvara. Kubera was initiated in the Mahāvrata, and his disciple was the great tapasvī Karṇodara, a śūdra. In this way Brahmā appointed the four varṇas to Śiva-pūjā and went back to his own loka.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 6

One of the seven sent to Himavān

Devī Satī had given up her life by yoga-śakti (the power of yoga) on account of Daksha, and had been born again as Umā, the daughter of Himavān. On Mount Mandara, Bhagavān Śiva remembered the maharshis together with Arundhatī, and they came at once. Hara welcomed and honoured them, and Nandīśvara, foremost of the gaṇas, gave them arghya and pādya. Then Bhagavān Śiva called the seven by name: “O Kaśyapa! Vasishṭha, Atri, Viśvāmitra, Gautama, Bharadvāja, Aṅgiras, listen with attention.” He asked them to go to the king of mountains and ask for his daughter for him. The Saptarshis said “Oṃ namaḥ Śaṅkarāya”, bowed to him and went to Himavān’s city, and Arundhatī went behind her husband.

Himavān received them himself at his door and seated them in his assembly hall. The ṛshis asked Aṅgiras, the eldest among them, to speak for them, and he asked for Kālī for Bhagavān Śiva: “We are the petitioners! This Śaṅkara is the bridegroom! You are the giver! Umā, the Jaganmātā, is the bride!” With the counsel of Meru and the other mountains and the words of Menā Devī, Himavān gave his daughter to Śarva. The Saptarshis then named the time of the marriage: a holy tithi with jāmitra-guṇa, on the third day, when the moon enters Uttarāphalgunī, the maitra muhūrta. They blessed Himavān and went by the sky-path to Mandara, bowed to Bhagavān Śiva and said: “Deva, you have become the bridegroom. Pārvatī has become the bride.” Śarva honoured all the maharshis in due order, together with Arundhatī.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 26

Guru of Bhagavān Vāmana

While the daitya king Bali was performing the aśvamedha yajña at Kurukshetra, Sūrya entered the Mithuna rāśi, and Aditi, mother of the devas, gave birth to Vāsudeva in the form of Vāmana. Brahmā came with the brahmarshis and praised the new-born Bhagavān Vāmana with a stotra. Then Śrī Hari asked for his upanayana, and Bharadvāja Maharshi, of the gotra of Bṛhaspati, of great tejas, performed for Bhagavān Vāmana the jātakarma (the birth rite) and the other saṃskāras (sacred rites of life), and gave him the dīkshā (initiation) of the brahmacarya vrata.

When that knower of all śāstras had completed the upanayana, all who were gathered there gave gifts to the wondrous vaṭu (young brahmacārī). Pulaha gave the yajñopavīta (sacred thread); Pulastya a white lower garment; Agastya the kṛshṇājina (black antelope skin); Bharadvāja the mekhalā (the girdle, the waist-cord); Marīci, son of Brahmā, the staff of palāśa wood; Vasishṭha the akshamālā (rosary); Aṅgiras a bunch of darbha grass; King Raghu an umbrella; King Nṛga wooden sandals; and Bṛhaspati a kamaṇḍalu (water pot).

Then, while the maharshis praised him with stotras, Bhagavān Vāmana studied the Vedas with their aṅgas. From Bharadvāja the Āṅgirasa he learned the Sāmaveda, full of great sound and great ākhyānas (sacred narratives), together with gāndharva, the art of music. Pulastya tells Nārada that Bhagavān Vāmana, himself an ocean of the Vedas and śāstras, gained mastery of the śruti within one month, only to set going by his own conduct the custom of the world.

Having gained skill in all the śāstras, the imperishable Bhagavān Vāmana, a brahmacārī in disguise, spoke to Bharadvāja, best of brāhmaṇas: “Brahman, if you give me leave, I can go to Kurukshetra, which grants great prosperity. There the daitya Bali is performing the puṇya-giving aśvamedha. It is only by the power of my tejas-aṃśas (portions of my splendour), which increase puṇya, and by their presence, that he is able to perform that yajña on earth. All of them can be seen there. Come with me.”

Bharadvāja answered: “Vishṇu, I am not one to give you orders. You may stay or go as you please. We shall all go to Bali’s yajña; do not be anxious. But I will ask you one thing. O Purushottama, the tejas-aṃśas you have spoken of: in which places among the vibhūtis (divine manifestations) do they abide, and where are you present? Kindly tell me all of them. I am eager to know where they are.”

Bhagavān Vāmana said: “O Guru, hear me as I tell you of the places of puṇya in which I, the many-formed, dwell. O Bharadvāja, the earth, the sky, pātāla, the oceans, divi (the shining worlds above), the directions, all the mountains and the clouds are filled with my avatāras, which are my likenesses. All moving and unmoving beings, Indra, Sūrya, Candra, Yama, the Vasus, Varuṇa, Agni and all the lokapālas, and all from Brahmā down to the clump of grass, arose from me. O brāhmaṇa, by seeing these principal aṃśas of mine on the earth, or by praising them, all pāpas are destroyed at that very moment.”

Then Bhagavān Vāmana told Bharadvāja, place by place, the forms in which he dwells. The first and highest of his manifest forms is the Matsya form in the Mānasa Sarovara; the Kūrma form is in the Kauśikī river; at Hastināpura he is Govinda, at the Yamunā Trivikrama, at Badarikāvana Nārāyaṇa, at Kurukshetra Kurudhvaja, at Naimisha Pītāmbara, at Gayā Gadādhara, at Prayāga Yogaśāyī, at Pushkara Keśava, at Kurujāṅgala Sthāṇu, on Kailāsa Vṛshabhadhvaja, and so through more than a hundred tīrthas, rivers, mountains and lands. In Rasātala he is Sahasraśīrsha, in Sutala Kūrma and Acala, in Pātāla Yogīśa, Hari and Śaṅkara; in Bhuvarloka he is Garuḍa, in Svarloka Vishṇu, in Maharloka Agastya, in Janaloka Kapila-deva, and in the seventh loka he is established in the form of Brahmā; in Jambūdvīpa he is Caturbhuja, in Pushkaradvīpa Dharmarāṭ. On this earth he is present in the Śālagrāmas, and he dwells in all moving and unmoving beings in the waters and on land. “All these places where I abide are eternal, ancient and holy,” he said. “They give dharma, they are full of tejas, they destroy pāpa, and they are always to be praised. Devas, humans and sādhyas who see, touch, praise and remember these devatās attain all four purushārthas (dharma, artha, kāma and moksha). This is certain.”

“O brāhmaṇa, arise,” said Bhagavān Vāmana. “You have now learned my vibhūti-sthānas (the places of my divine forms), which are made of tapas. Now let us go to the yajña that the lord of the asuras is performing, to bring welfare to the devas. Come!” And Bhagavān Vāmana, with Bharadvāja Ṛshi, went from that mountain to Kurujāṅgala, showing forth his līlā and his grace.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 62–63

At Bali’s yajña

Bhagavān Vāmana came near Bali’s yajñaśālā and praised the yajña with a voice deep as a cloud. Bali, lord of the dānavas, who had conquered his senses, went with the arghya vessel to where Bhagavān Vāmana stood, and together with Bharadvāja Maharshi he honoured him with arghya, pādya and the rest and brought him into the yajñaśālā. There Bali seated him according to rule, worshipped him and asked what he should give.

Bhagavān Vāmana looked at the lord of the dānavas, laughed aloud for a long while and, looking at Bharadvāja Ṛshi, said: “This great one, the guru of my guru, has taken up the fire. That fire must not be placed on the land of others. For that, O lord of dānavas, give me three steps of ground, matching the measure of my body. This alone is my request.” So began the gift of the three steps, by which Bhagavān Vāmana bound Bali.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 65

Maker of the Brahmodumbara tīrtha

In the Saro Māhātmya, the glory of the sacred lake of Kurukshetra, Bharadvāja is the first named of the seven maharshis who together made the Brahmodumbara tīrtha, rare on earth: Bharadvāja, Gautama, Jamadagni, Kaśyapa, Viśvāmitra, Vasishṭha and Atri. It lies beyond the river Āpagā and is the chief place of Brahmā, famed in the worlds; because Caturmukha Brahmā himself served it, it became renowned as Brahmodumbara. One who bathes in the Brahmarshi kuṇḍa there gains, by the grace of the Saptarshis, the puṇya of seven soma-yāgas. One who bathes in that tīrtha of Brahmā attains Brahmaloka, and there is no turning this back. If one feeds a brāhmaṇa there for the pitṛs, the pitṛs, pleased with the gift, grant rare varas. And one who bathes in the kuṇḍa separately for each of the seven maharshis may, by the grace of those ṛshis, gain lordship of the seven worlds.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 15

Sources

• Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapters 43–44
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 1–3, 56 (and Chapters 1–4 for the transmission of the Rāmāyaṇa)
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 54–55
• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Sambhava Parva, Chapter 130
• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapter 140
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapters 93, 94
• Mahābhārata, Mahā Prasthānika Parva, Chapter 1
• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 2, 6, 26, 62–63, 65; Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 15