Tribes in Ancient India c34.s3: The Bharadvājas

c34.s3.1

What is true of the Ātreyas seems to be equally true of the Bharadvājas or Bhāradvājas. The *Mārkaṇḍeya* list (LVII, 39-40) mentions the tribe along with the Ātreyas, Puṣkalas, Lampākas, etc., and locates them in the north. They are also mentioned in the *Bhīṣmaparvan* list (IX, 376) in the same context as that of the Ātreyas; the Great Epic tradition connects Bhāradvāja with the upper Gangetic region near the hills (*Ādiparvan*, CXXX, 5102-6; CLXVI, 6328-32; *Vanaparvan*, CXXXV, 10700-28; *Śalyaparvan*, XLIX, 2762-2824), and Bhāradvāja, the Ṛṣi, was evidently the originator of the race or tribe. Like the Ātreyas, it is tempting to connect the people of various caste divisions of present-day India claiming to belong to the Bhāradvāja gotra with the Bhāradvāja tribe.