Mythology - Bharadwaja

A Rishi to whom many Vedic hymns are attributed. He was the son of Brihaspati and father of Drona, the preceptor of the Pandavas. The Taittiriya Brahmana says that “he lived through three lives” (Probably meaning a life of great length), and that “he became immortal and ascended to the heavenly world, to union with the sun.” In the Mahabharata, he is represented as living at Hardwar; in the Ramayana, he received Rama and Sita in his hermitage at Prayaga, which was then and afterwards much celebrated. According to some of the Puranas and the Harivansa, he became by gift or adoption the son of King Bharata, and an absurd story is told about his birth to account for his name: His mother, the wife of Utathya, was pregnant by her husband and by Brihaspati. Dirghatamas, the son by her husband, kicked his half-brother out of the womb before his time, when Brihaspati said to his mother, ‘Bharadwajam,’ ‘Cherish this child of two fathers.

© “Hindu Mythology & Religion” by John Dowson. Reprinted with permission.

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