Bharadvaja

Bharadvaja is a Vedic rishi, counted by the Wisdom Library glossary among the Saptarishis, the seven great sages of the present Manvantara beside Atri, Vasishtha, Vishvamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni and Kashyapa, and described there as a descendant of the sage Angiras. Monier-Williams, quoted on that page, gives him as the supposed author of the hymns of the sixth mandala of the Rigveda. The glossary also records that he was the father of Drona of the Mahabharata, that his hermitage is said to survive at holy Prayag, now Allahabad, and that Bharadvaja is among the most exalted brahmin gotras in India. He is entered here so the sixth mandala can be attributed to its traditional composer.