Garga () was an ancient Indian sage who composed a

Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...

hymn. He is also known as Garga Bhāradvāja ("Garga, the descendant of

Bharadvaja Bharadvaja (, ; also spelled Bharadwaja) was one of the revered Vedic sages (maharishi) in Ancient India. He was a renowned scholar, economist, grammarian and a physician. He is one of the Saptarshis (seven great sages or Maharṣis). His co ...

") to distinguish him from other people of same name.

Ancestry

Katyayana's '' Sarvanukramani'' attributes the

Rig Veda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...

hymn 6.47 to Garga. This text describes Garga as a son of Bharadvaja Barhaspatya. Katyayana was himself a descendant of Bharadvaja, but appears to have abridged the genealogy between Bharadvaja and Garga. The

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

Puranic Puranas (Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature
(1995 Editio ...

literature suggests that Garga was a distant descendant of Bharadvaja. According to this tradition, Garga was a son of Bhumanyu and a great-grandson of Vidathin Bharadvaja (who was adopted by Bharata Daushyanti). Garga's brothers included Brhatkshatra, Mahavirya, and Nara.

Descendants

According to the epic-Puranic literature, Garga had a son named Shini (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that ...

: Śini), who was also a sage. Shini's descendants were called Shainyas. Several later ancient Indian scholars and legendary figures bore the name Garga or other names suggesting their descent from Garga (for example, Gārgya, Gārgi, and Gārgāyanas). This suggests that the descendants of Garga contributed to a number of fields including interpretation of the

Vedas FIle:Atharva-Veda samhita page 471 illustration.png, upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the ''Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of relig ...

, etymology, grammar, astrology, dharmashastra, philosophy, and religion. These people include: * Bālākī Gārgya and

Gārgī Vāchaknavī Gargi Vachaknavi (Sans: गार्गी वाचक्नवी (Devanagari); Gārgī Vāchaknavī ( HK)) was an ancient Hindu sage and philosopher. In Vedic literature, she is honoured as a great natural philosopher, renowned expounder of t ...

, mentioned in the ''

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad The ''Brihadaranyaka Upanishad'' (, ) is one of the Mukhya Upanishads, Principal Upanishads and one of the first Upanishadic scriptures of Hinduism. A key scripture to various schools of Hinduism, the ''Brihadaranyaka Upanisad'' is tenth in the ...

'' * Sūryāyaṇī Gārgya, mentioned in the ''

Prashna Upanishad The Prashna Upanishad (, ) is an ancient Sanskrit text, embedded inside Atharva Veda, ascribed to ''Pippalada'' sakha of Vedic scholars. It is a Mukhya (primary) Upanishad, and is listed as number 4 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads of Hin ...

'' * Śarvadatta, Maśaka, and Sthiraka: the Gārgyas mentioned in the Vamsa Brahmana of the

Sama Veda The ''Samaveda'' (, , from '' सामन्'', "song" and ''वेद'', "knowledge"), is the Veda of melodies and chants. It is an ancient Vedic Sanskrit text, and is one of the sacred scriptures in Hinduism. One of the four Vedas, it is a l ...

* Kuṇī Gārgya, mentioned in Mahabharata 9.51.3-4 * Kroṣṭuki Gārgya, mentioned in ''

Vayu Purana The ''Vayu Purana'' (, ) is a Sanskrit text and one of the eighteen major Puranas of Hinduism. ''Vayu Purana'' is mentioned in the manuscripts of the Mahabharata and other Hindu texts, which has led scholars to propose that the text is among the ...

'' 34.63 * Kalayani Gargya, mentioned in ''

Vishnu Purana The Vishnu Purana () is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of ancient and medieval texts of Hinduism. It is an important Pancharatra text in the Vaishnavism literature corpus. The manuscripts of ''Vishnu Purana'' have survived into ...

'' 3.4.26 as a disciple of Bashkali Bharadvaja * Garga of Mathura, mentioned in ''Vishnu Purana'' 5.6.8-9 as the person who performed the

naming ceremony A naming ceremony is a stage at which a person or persons is officially assigned a name. The methods of the practice differ over cultures and religions. The timing at which a name is assigned can vary from some days after birth to several months ...

of Vasudeva's sons * Garga, mentioned in the ''

Brahmanda Purana The ''Brahmanda Purana'' () is a Sanskrit text and one of the eighteen major Puranas, a genre of Hindu texts. It is listed as the eighteenth Maha-Purana in almost all the anthologies. The text is also referred in medieval Indian literature as th ...

'' 12.6-11 as the person whose son was killed by Janmajeya * Gārgya, mentioned in ''

'' 14.46ff as the father of king

Kalayavana Kalayavana () is a king in Hinduism. He is stated to have invaded Mathura with an army of 30 million '' Yavanas'' against Lord Krishna. Legend The '' Brahmanda Purana'' 14.46 narrates the following story of Kalayavana's birth, a woman named V ...

* Garga, mentioned in the ''

Markandeya Purana The ''Markandeya Purana'' (; IAST: ) is a Sanskrit text of Hinduism, and one of the eighteen major Puranas. The text's title Markandeya refers to a sage in Sanatana Dharma, who is the central character in two legends, one linked to Shiva and oth ...

'' 18.1-25 as a minister of

Kartavirya Arjuna Kartavirya Arjuna (, ; also known as Sahasrabahu Arjuna or Sahasrarjuna) was a king of an ancient Haihayas kingdom with capital at Mahishmati which is on the banks of Narmada River in the current state of Madhya Pradesh. Kartavirya was son of ...

Vrddha Garga Garga, also known as Vṛddha Garga ("Garga the Elder"), was an ancient Indian scholar of jyotisha. Several Sanskrit-language jyotiḥśāstra works - covering topics such as astrology, astronomy, and divination - are attributed to him. These wor ...

, to whom several astrological texts are attributed * Garga, mentioned in ''

Matsya Purana The ''Matsya Purana'' (IAST: Matsya Purāṇa) is one of the eighteen major Puranas (Mahapurana), and among the oldest and better preserved in the Puranic genre of Sanskrit literature in Hinduism. The text is a Vaishnavism text named after the h ...

'' 20.1-10 as the preceptor of

Kaushika Vishvamitra (, ) is one of the most venerated rishis or sages of ancient India. Vishvamitra is one of the seven Brahmarshi. According to Hindu tradition, he is stated to have written most of the Mandala 3 of the Rigveda, including the Gaya ...

's sons * Garga, a student of

Lakulisha Lakulisha ( ) (Etymology: लगुड (staff) or लकुट (mace) + ईश (lord) = meaning, the lord with a staff or mace or club or stick) was a prominent Shaivite revivalist, reformist and preceptor of the doctrine of the Pashupatas, one ...

and the founder of a sub-sect of

Pashupata Shaivism Pashupata Shaivism (, ) is one of the oldest major Shaivite Hindu schools. The mainstream which follows Vedic Pāśupata penance are 'Mahāpāśupata' and the schism of 'Lakula Pasupata' of Lakulisa. There is a debate about the origin of this s ...

. The ''

Atharvaveda The Atharvaveda or Atharva Veda (, , from ''wikt:अथर्वन्, अथर्वन्'', "priest" and ''wikt:वेद, वेद'', "knowledge") or is the "knowledge storehouse of ''wikt:अथर्वन्, atharvans'', the proced ...

'' ''Parisistha'' 8.15.2 describes the Gargas as Brahmins of Kshatriya ancestry.

References

Bibliography

* {{Rishis of Hindu mythology Rishis Rigveda Sanskrit writers