Garga

By Swami Harshananda

There are several sages of this name.

• The ṛṣi or the sage of the 47th sukta of the 6th maṇḍala of the Ṛgveda is Garga, the son of Bharadvāja
• The woman-sage Gārgi Vācaknavi mentioned in the Bṛhadāranyaka was a descendant of the sage Garga
• The kulapurohita or the family priest of the Yādavas of Mathurā was also Garga. He performed the nāmakaraṇa or the naming ceremony of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma secretly. He also advised Vasudeva (their father) to send them to the sage Sāndīpani for education
• The name of Garga is mentioned in the list of sages who visited Śrī Rāma after his return to Ayodhyā
• Garga also has a reference in the list of people who visited Droṇācārya in the battlefield of Kurukṣetra and advised him to retire
• There is also the mention of an astronomer sage Garga who performed austerities at Gargasrota on the bank of the river Sarasvatī. He discovered the paths of the planets and the stars
• Several Garga samhitās are found now. All of them may be different versions of an original work. Author of this Garga samhitās perhaps lived in 50 B. C. Utpala, the famous commentator of the Brhajjātaka of Varāhamihira (d. A. D. 587) quotes nearly 300 verses from Garga’s Samhitā. He was the teacher of Atri, another well-known sage
• The Visnupurāna mentions him as an ancient ṛṣi who had known the consequences of all the nimittas or omens

References

• The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

Explore Other Articles

Anahata-nada
Dūruktī
Spiritual traditions
Cidananda
Bali