Bharata

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Bharata (भरत) was an emperor and the founder of the Bhārata dynasty. He is considered as an ancestor of the Pandavas and the Kauravas on the bassis of description in the Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata. Though the Bhāratas are prominent tribe in the Rigveda,[1] the story of Bharata is first told in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, wherein he is menti0oned as the son of Dushyanta and Shakuntala. The story of his parents, and his birth, is also the theme of Kalidasa's famous play, Abhijñānashākuntala.

Jat Gotra Bharat

Bharat (भरत) is a gotra of Jats. [2][3]

Association with present Jat gotras

Ram Sarup Joon[4] writes ... Many names in the Genealogical tables of Yayati are associated with present Jat gotras. Some examples are Ushinar, Shishu Bhadra, Tak or Takshak, Satoti, Krishan or Kushana from the Yadhu branch; Dushyanta, Bharat, Bhardwaja, Hasti, Ajmirh, Kaushik, Gadh and Vishwamitra of Puru branch; Seth, Arh, Gandhi, Gaindhu and Gandhar of the Ardas branch.

Mention by Panini

Bharata (भरत) is mentioned by Panini in Ashtadhyayi. [5]


Bharata (भरत), a war like tribe, is mentioned by Panini in Ashtadhyayi. [6]

Bharata King

Bharata (भरत) was the son of King Dushyanta and Shakuntala and thus a descendant of the Chandravansh of the kshatriya creed. Both he and Bharata, the son of Rishabha (see below), are believed to be the person after whom India was named Bharatavarsha. He was originally christened Sarvadamana (subduer of all); the Mahabharata traces the events in his life by which he came to be known as Bharata (the Cherished).

In another version from mythological sources, Bharata was the eldest son of king Rishabha. Both he and Bharata, the son of Dushyanta, are believed to be the person after whom India was named Bharatavarsha. In his later years, this Bharata renounced the throne and became an ascetic in a forest.

History

V. S. Agrawala[7] mentions Sanghas known to Panini which includes - Bharata (भारत), under Yaudheyadi (यौधेयादि) (IV.1.178).


V. S. Agrawala[8] mentions Ayudhjivi Sanghas in the Ganapatha under Yaudheyadi group, repeated twice in the Panini's Ashtadhyayi (IV.1.178) and (V.3.117) which includes - Bharata (भारत) - This gana alone mentions Bharatas as an ayudhjivi Sangha. It must be some old tradition, otherwise Panini locates them in Kuru region, on the borderland of the Udichya and Prachya divisions of India. According to another sutra the Kurus lived under a regal form of government. It seems that these Bharatas lived round about Kurukshetra as a Sangha in Panini’s times.

Bharatas and beef eating

Hukum Singh Panwar (Pauria)[9] writes that More devastating than the belligerency of the Bharatas over the different political set-up of the republican tribes including the Panis and the aggressive economic exploitation of the latter was the Bharata's acute religious dogmatism and fundamentalism which for long bedevilled the whole of the Sapta Saindhava country. "Religious contention actually became the devil's harvest". The Bharatas and the Pauravas wrote for their respective religions, "wrangled for it, fought for it, died for it, and were separated and exiled for it; anything but lived lor ii". The rivalry between Rudra (Pasupati) and Vishnu for supremacy, the Siva-Daxa conflict and the Deva-Asura war, are all Pointers in this direction. The Bharatas sacrificed bulls & oxen to propitiate their gods and goddesses. Their kings, especially Diodasa Atithigava, entertained their guests, kith & kin with beef of the best of kine. "Indra boasts of eating bulls. Beef was considered as the best kind of food for the Brahmans (Sat. Brah. 111. 1.2.21, xi. 7.13). Yajnavalkya was Very fond of beef. Brhadranyaka of the Yujurveda frankly advocated eating of beef' (cf. Chattopadhyaya, 1970; 54) even though the cow was aghnya in the Rig Veda (VIII. 101.15-16). Such sacrifices and entertainments were intolerable to the Panis and other republican Asura and Vratya tribes who depended, besides irrigation, on draught & milch cattle for the success of their various occupations. These people were Sun-worshippers like their leader Visvamitra. They abhorred the alleged invocation of various female deities (R.V.,X, 110) and offering of human sacrifices by the Bhrigu's descendents (Ibid.10.q.by Waddell, 1925, 60), who blindly espoused the cause of the Bharatas. All these differences soured the milk of their cordiality for ever.


The Jats:Their Origin, Antiquity and Migrations:End of page 225


Distribution

Notable persons

Population

References

  1. Singh, U. (2009), A History of Ancient and Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century, Delhi: Longman, p. 187, ISBN 978-81-317-1677-9
  2. Jat History Dalip Singh Ahlawat/Parishisht-I, s.n. भ-85
  3. O.S.Tugania:Jat Samuday ke Pramukh Adhar Bindu, p.54, s.n. 1880
  4. History of the Jats/Chapter II,p. 28
  5. V. S. Agrawala: India as Known to Panini, 1953, p.37, 340
  6. V. S. Agrawala: India as Known to Panini, 1953, p.451
  7. V. S. Agrawala: India as Known to Panini, 1953, p.500
  8. V. S. Agrawala: India as Known to Panini, 1953, p.450
  9. The Jats:Their Origin, Antiquity and Migrations/The migrations of the Jats to the North-Western countries,p.225

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