ABSTRACT
Rishi Bharadwaja was the forerunner amongst all the rishis of ancient times who brought knowledge of Ayurveda from heaven to the earth. Among the august gathering of all the sages under mountain Himalaya, sage Bhardwaja was chosen as leader for this purpose after lot of deliberations. Rishi Bhardwaja’s intelligence, memory, presence of mind, reasoning power must have offered him this leadership. Hence, it becomes essential to know about rishi Bhardwaja and his contribution to the field of Ayurveda. The present study aims to explore the family details of sage Bhardwaja and his contribution to Ayurveda. After taking proper knowledge of Ayurveda from the God king Indra, sage Bhardwaja disseminated this knowledge among many rishis. As per Harivansh Purana, sage Bhardwaja taught surgical knowledge to Kashi king Divodasa and medicinal knowledge to Atreya Punarwasu. Kashi king Divodasa later taught surgical knowledge to his eight disciples. Whereas Atreya Punarwasu gave this knowledge to his famous five disciples. This literary retrospective research study showed that sage Bhardwaja was the pioneer of medical practices on earth.
Keywords : Bhardwaja, Brihaspati, Indra, Punarwasu, Divodasa