Bharat

Bharat, Bharath, Bharata, Bharatam, Bhārat, or Bhārata may be a transliteration of either Bharata (Sanskrit: भरत, lit. "to be maintained") or Bhārata (Sanskrit: भारत, lit. "descended from Bharata") and may refer to:

India (Bhārata, Bhāratavarsha)

People and characters

Bharata (emperor)

In Hindu mythology, Bharata (Sanskrit: भरत, Bharata i.e., "The cherished") is a legendary emperor and the founder of the Bhārata dynasty, and thus an ancestor of the Pandavas and the Kauravas in the Sanskrit epic, The Mahabharata. Though the Bhāratas are prominent tribe in the Rigveda, the story of Bharata is first told in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, wherein he is the son of Dushyanta and Shakuntala. The story of his parents, and his birth, is also related in Kalidasa's famous play, Abhijñānashākuntala.

India has been called Bharatavarṣa (the country of Bharata) after him, and Bhārat is an official name of the Republic of India

Etymology

The name Bharata means "the cherished" in Sanskrit. In the Adi Parva (The Book of the Beginning) of the Mahabharata, King Dushyanta was advised by the words:

अभूतिर् एषा कस् त्यज्याज् जीवञ् जीवन्तम् आत्मजम्
शाकुन्तळं महात्मानं दौःषन्तिं भर पौरव
भर्तव्योऽयं त्वया यस्माद् अस्माकं वचनाद् अपि
तस्माद् भवत्व् अयं नाम्ना भरतो नाम ते सुतः

abhūtir eṣā kas tyajyāj jīvañ jīvantam ātmajam
śākuntalaṃ mahātmānaṃ dauḥṣantiṃ bhara paurava
bhartavyo 'yaṃ tvayā yasmād asmākaṃ vacanād api
tasmād bhavatv ayaṃ nāmnā bharato nāma te sutaḥ

Jadabharata

Jadabharata is a story about Bharata, son of Rishabha, first Tirthankara and founder of Jainism in the present half time cycle. The story appears in the second section of the Vishnu Purana and the fifth canto of the Bhagavata Purana. Stories related to the life of Bharata also appears in Jain texts, like Adipurana, a 10th-century Kannada text by Jain poet Adikavi Pampa (fl. 941 CE), written in Champu style, a mix of prose and verse and spread over in sixteen cantos, deals with the ten lives of the first tirthankara, Rishabha, also known as Adinath, and his two sons, Bharata and Bahubali.

Legends

According to Hindu scriptures, Bharata was born in the Solar Dynasty, in the line of Manu Svayambhuva, the eldest of a hundred sons of a saintly king by the name of Rishabha Deva (First Tirthankara), who ruled over the earth.

Life As A King

When Rishabha Deva became old he entrusted the rule of his kingdom to Bharata and retired to the forest to perform tapas. According to Bhagavata purana, Bharata on assuming rule married a girl named Panchajani and five sons were born to them. Bharata ruled the earth for a long time in a just manner. He performed a number of yagas, worshipped God in the prescribed manner and did many dharmic acts. Thus, he earned much merit. At the forest he stayed in the hermitage of the Rishi Pulaha on the banks of Gandaki river and by means of his austerities became a great sage. When Bharata in turn became old, he divided his kingdom among his five sons and, following his father, went to the forest to perform tapas.