Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s3.62

v2.c4.s3.62

Bharad-vāja is the name of the reputed¹ author of the sixth Maṇḍala of the Rigveda. The attribution is so far correct that Bharadvāja² and the Bharadvājas³ are repeatedly mentioned as singers in that Maṇḍala. Judging by the tone of the references to Bharadvāja, he can hardly be deemed to have been a contemporary of any of the hymns.⁴ According to the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa,⁵ he was the Purohita of Divodāsa. This interpretation is to be preferred to that of Roth,⁶ who suggests that he and Divodāsa were identical. His connexion with the house of Divodāsa also appears from the statement of the Kāṭhaka Saṃhitā⁷ that Bharadvāja gave Pratardana the kingdom. It is unnecessary to suppose that the same Bharadvāja was meant in both cases, and that Pratardana was a son of Divodāsa: the later Saṃhitās refer to Bharadvāja, like the other great sages, irrespective of chronology.