Bharata (Sanskrit: भरतः, Bharataḥ, means "the cherished")[1][2] was a legendary emperor of India, and is referred to in Hindu and Jain mythology. He was son of King Dushyanta of Hastinapura and Queen Śakuntalā and thus a descendant of the mythical Lunar Dynasty of the kṣatriya Varna. Bharata is supposed to have been conquered all of Greater India, uniting it into a single political entity which was named after him as "Bhāratavarṣa". According to the classical Hindu epic Mahābhārata , Bharata's empire covered only in the Indian subcontinent.
There are many references of "Bharata Chakravarti" in the sacred Jain texts. He conquered all of the earth and the worlds above and reached the top of "Meru" or "Sumeru" mountain (the center of the world and tallest mountain) and placed a flag. But upon reaching the top he saw numerous such flags of world conquerors before him. This made him feel very insignificant and he took the Jain diksha and attained the nirvana.
Bhārat (along with India) is the official English name of Republic of India and Bhārata Gaṇarājya is the official Sanskrit name of the country.
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The name Bharata means "the cherished" in Sanskrit. In the Adi Parva (The Book of the Beginning) of Mahabharata, King Dushyanta was advised by the words:
अभूतिर एषा कस तयज्याज जीवञ जीवन्तम आत्मजम
शाकुन्तळं महात्मानं दौःषन्तिं भर पौरव
भर्तव्योऽयं तवया यस्माद अस्माकं वचनाद अपि
तस्माद भवत्व 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
Therefore, O thou of Puru's race, cherish thy high-souled son born of (Queen) Sakuntala
and because this child (Bharata) is to be cherished by thee even at our word,
therefore shall this thy son be known by the name of Bharata ("the cherished").
In his childhood, Bharata was known by the name "Sarvadamana" (Sanskrit: सर्वदमनः, Sarvadamanaḥ), meaning "the subduer of all". The dwellers at Sage Kanva's asylum called him by this name because, even in the age of six, he was able to seize and restrain wild animals.
According to the Mahābhārata (Adi Parva), Bharata was the son of King Dushyanta and Shakuntala and thus a descendant of the mythical Lunar Dynasty of the Kshatriya Varna. He was originally named Sarvadamana ("the subduer of all"); the Mahābhārata traces the events in his life by which he came to be known as Bharata ("the cherished"). Bharata's exploits as a child prince are dramatised in Kalidasa's poetic play Abhijñānaśākuntalam.
A nymph called Menaka had come down to Earth from Heaven at the behest of the king of the demi-gods, Indra, to distract the great sage Vishvamitra from his deep penance. She succeeded and bore a child, then Shakuntala, by him. Vishwamitra, angered by the loss of the virtue gained through his many hard years of strict ascetism, distanced himself from the child and mother to return to his work. Realizing that she could not leave the child with him, and having to return to the Heavenly realms, the nymph left the newborn baby on the banks of the Malini River on the peaks of the Himalayas. The child was found by a Sage called Kanva surrounded and protected by birds (Shakunton in Sanskrit), and so she was named "Shakuntala".
Shakuntala was brought up by Sage Kanva in his hermitage. King Dushyanta encountered Shakuntala while travelling through the forest with his army. Pursuing a male deer wounded by his arrow into the hermitage, he saw Shakuntala nursing the deer, her pet, and fell in love with her. He profusely begged her forgiveness for harming the deer and Dushyanta married Shakuntala there in the hermitage. King Dushyanta left hermitage after some time due to unrest in the capital city. At the time of leaving, he gave her a ring as a memory of their time spent together and promised her to come back later.
The Malini River on whose banks the nymph left the girl child is sometimes located in the Sivalik Hills of the Himalaya and Malini flows about 10 km west of a town Kotdwara in Uttarakhand, India. This is corroborated by the famous poet Kalidasa in his Abhijñānaśākuntalam.
Time being, Shakuntala gave birth to a child. The Sage Kanwa named him as Saravadamana. Surrounded only by wild animals, Sarvadamana grew to be a strong child and made a sport of opening the mouths of tigers and lions and counting their teeth.
Time went by and the King Dushyanta never came back. So, Shakuntala reached King's palace with her son. During the journey, she lost the ring while crossing a river. Arriving at King's court, Shakuntala was hurt and surprised when her husband did not recognize her, nor recollected anything about her. Since she lost the ring, she didn't have any proof as well. Dushyanta's failure to recognise Shakuntala is in fact a ploy to have his subjects accept her as his true wife, since he had feared rumors might otherwise have arisen as to the "propriety" of the marriage. A few days later, a fisherman found that ring inside a fish and presented it before the king. After a long course of arguments made by Shakuntala, the King accepted her as his wife. Because King supported his child after hearing the speech of Celestial Messenger, that Shakuntala's son came to be called Bharata ("the cherished", "the supported").
This is however a dramatised version by poet Kalidasa. This varies dramatically from the version in the epic Mahabharata.[3]
In his youth, Bharata became the King. Young Bharata conquered and ruled the entire continent of India, from sea to Himalaya. His empire was named Bharatavarsha, the land of Bharata.
Vishnu Purana accounts the extent of Bharatavarsha,
उत्तरं यत्समुद्रस्य हिमाद्रेश्चैव दक्षिणम् ।
वर्षं तद् भारतं नाम भारती यत्र संततिः ।।
uttaraṃ yatsamudrasya himādreścaiva dakṣiṇam
varṣaṃ tadbhārataṃ nāma bhāratī yatra santatiḥ
"The country (varṣam) that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains is called Bhāratam; there dwell the descendants of Bharata."
He ruled virtuously and earned great fame and was known by the titles of "Chakravarti" (emperor) and "Sarvabhauma" (Sanskrit: सार्वभौमः).
He performed many sacrifices and Sage Kanva was the chief priest at those sacrifices. Bharata married Sunanda the daughter of Sarvasena, the King of Kasi Kingdom, and begat upon her the son named Bhumanyu.[4]
Emperor Bharata gave his name to the mythical race of which he was the founder. It was in the Bharata's dynasty that, later, the Pandavas of epic Mahabharata were born.
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