A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.238

c5.238

BHARADWĀJA. A Rishi to whom many Vedic hymns are attributed. He was the son of Brihaspati and father of Drona, the preceptor of the Pāndavas. The Taittirīya Brāhmana 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 Mahābhārata he is represented as living at Hardwār; in the Rāmāyaṇa he received Rāma and Sītā in his hermitage at Prayāga, which was then and afterwards much celebrated. According to some of the Purāṇas and the Hari-vansa, 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. Dīrgha-tamas, the son by her husband, kicked his half-brother out of the womb before his time, when Brihaspati said to his mother, ‘Bhara-dwā-jam,’ ‘Cherish this child of two fathers.’